Eye Gate Deep
by Elanor Pam
Summary: Yuugi has been passing out, Jounouchi has been seeing shadows... also a lot of people seem to know a lot... New Chapter: 30-09-2004 All you've ever wanted to know... ok, not all, but a lot.
1. Prologue or almost: On the corridor

Eye Gate Deep 01

"On the corridor…"

By Elanor Pam 

            Hi, hi!! Ask and ye shall receive, they say. I received some kind emails of people that had read "The greatest love of all" and asked for a sequel. They were few, but sent me such kind and encouraging words (even comparing me to professional writers!!) that I couldn't just say no. It had to be delayed for a while, since I tried to install Windows 2000 and somehow screwed up the computer, losing the Office, the soundboard data and the modem data. Reinstalling crappy 98, I got the modem back, but the video board is gone, meaning that my super monitor is useless. In other words: I have to use Win98 to access Internet and Win2000 to do everything else, and I can't listen to my dearest anime mp3. 

            I still haven't reinstalled Office, since my backup copy is missing a file, and I'm writing right now on the WordPad… and my first impression of it is, bluntly: WORDPAD SUCKS. LOOKS CRAPPY AND DOESN'T HAVE THE JUSTIFY BUTTON. 

            Well, here is the sequel, featuring the puzzle and the almighty 3rd floor. (I just hope I'll get the Office back soon. I really miss the spell check now, I don't even know if I wrote "spell check" right…)

            Thanks to Thundergryphon, lily22, fwirl22 and Shizuku!! You all rock, thanks for cheering. Big kisses to everybody that reviewed. Your kind words encouraged me to do this sequel. If you didn't read "The Greatest Love of All", I'd advise you to do so, or you won't understand much of what happened.

            (Revised at July 31, 2002: YAY!! GOT OFFICE BACK AND NOTICED A LOT OF STUPID SPELLING ERRORS!! ANYWAY, UPLOADING AGAIN WITH THE _RIGHT_ FORMAT!! YAY, YAY, THREE TIMES YAY!!)

~*~*~*~*~*~

            Yuugi blushed slightly, looking at his friends, while opening his backpack slowly. 

            "C'mon, you freak, show it!!!" 

            "Stop getting us nervous!!"

            "I can't believe you kept it from _me_, your traitor!!"

            Jounouchi, Honda and Anzu leaned eagerly on Yuugi's desk, leaving us all to wonder how the desk could support the weight of three tall teenagers, since it was so used to that cute, small, petit one. Yuugi laughed heartily, his arm into his oversized backpack, searching. All of them had big smiles on their faces, like children waiting for a big surprise.

            For once, the classroom wasn't drowned in solitude at lunch. 

            "Here," Yuugi stopped searching, "got it!" 

            He pulled a golden box from the backpack, placing it carefully on the desk. As if they were a single being, the other three got different chairs, placing them around the small boy, and sit, the four leaning over the box. 

            "Wo-----w", was the only thing they could say about the golden engraved box, shining under the classroom lamps. Yuugi opened the lid with a big smile on his face, and the three companions opened their mouths in perfect synchronism. Some seconds passed.

            "Cool! What is it?" Jounouchi asked, innocently, to be knocked on the head by his two friends, while Yuugi laughed. 

            "ARE YOU MONGOL OR BLIND?" asked Honda, while Anzu shook her head, sighing. 

            Jounouchi didn't seem to like the question. "So what is it, Mr. Know-it-All?"

            "You're so dumb! It's a Lego game!"

            Yuugi put his head on his desk, laughing so hard it seemed he was crying. Anzu gave up, looking away at the window, trying to calm down. The "Barbarian Brothers" looked at them, their clueless faces a perfect Kodak Moment. "…isn't it?", asked Honda, now in doubt. 

            "Use your head, fashion hair" Jounouchi motioned to the box. "Is Lego all golden? I prefer asking what is something then making dumb mistakes…"

            "Well, it can be anything. Bingo…"

            "Origami…"

            "Stamps…"

            Yuugi was still laughing hard, and a vein was jumping at Anzu's forehead. The two turned to them.

            "What is it?"

            Yuugi lifted his head with some difficulty. "It's a… aHAHAHAHA…" he bonked his head on the desk. 

            "Why's he laughing so hard?" asked Jou to Honda. 

            "Beats me."

            Yuugi calmed down a little. "Well, let's put it like this. When Grandpa gave it to me, he said 'It's something you can see, but can't see'. Can you solve the quiz?"

            "IT'S AIR!!" Jounouchi bellowed, proudly.

            "It's a puzzle" Anzu pointed to the box, rolling her eyes. 

            "AAAaaaahhhhnnnn……" the boys chanted, in a duet. 

            "Well, I was near. I said 'origami'…"

            "But I said Lego. It's nearer!"

            Yuugi laughed again. Having friends was _so much_ fun. Principally when two of them were nearly brainless - not that he'd phrase it like this. But they were quite that, he knew that and he didn't care. Piecing the puzzle together, he drew their attention away from the little fight, while they opened their mouths at the way he easily pieced each one of the extremely complicated-looking golden toy, as if it was a second nature of him.

            "I was a little boy when grandpa gave it to me" he said, absent-mindedly, piecing the toy artistically. "If I remember well, it was even before I knew Anzu-san…" his voice trailed and lowered, face softening sadly; his eyes were looking down at the puzzle, shining, and, under the white light of the classroom's lamps, his skin seemed to have a gleam of its own. Anzu's eyes reflected the light, trembling, as tears gathered; between the three, she was the only one who knew what he had felt his whole childhood. Honda looked at the floor, uncomfortable, and started to fiddle with his nose (that seemed to be running); Jounouchi bit a trembling lip, his eyes starting to gleam just like Anzu's. Yuugi kept on, as if talking to himself, handling the golden pieces effortlessly.

            "At that time, it was my only friend. I was so lonely, and when I played with it I didn't feel lonely anymore. I felt like a caring hand held mine, helping me put each piece in its place."

            Something that sounded suspiciously like a sob came from the direction of Jounouchi or Honda; it was difficult to tell which one, since both seemed to be fruitlessly fighting their tears.

            "My biggest fear was that some bully discovered I was carrying it around… it's golden, you see… maybe they would steal it… so I never carried it to school, and, even after I got Anzu as a friend, and she would chase the bullies away, I was afraid. I don't know if this is real gold or not, but someone really strong could appear and hurt Anzu for it… then I kept on leaving it in the dark. That way, both my treasures would be safer…" he blushed heavily, stopping with the puzzle for a moment, having just taken notice that he had let the words flow freely and they had overflowed a bit too much. 

            Anzu smiled at him, as if he was a child saying something cute, while the two boys wept and wailed on each other's shoulders. 

            "Ahn… well…" he continued to piece the puzzle, his fingers seeming a bit nervous "After sometime it started to be very hard, because at home I had the puzzle but I missed Anzu, and at school I… Anzu was there… but not the puzzle…" his cheeks had a tomato color right now. "So I began carrying it to school, but only now or then, because walking around with it in my backpack leaves me quite paranoid…" he chuckled. "I'm always afraid some bully will choose that day to mess up with my books. What would happen if they found a golden box there? I was even afraid a teacher would find it. Teachers aren't saints, and although some are reliable, there are others no better than some students."

            "YEAH!!" Jounouchi and Honda clenched their fists. "Like Cyouno!!"

            "Sawamura!!"

            "Takeda!!"

            And as they named all the teachers that gave them bad grades (well, ALL teachers), Yuugi softly laughed again. Had he ever laughed that much in less than ten minutes? Not even in a whole day…

            "But nothing serious happened, did it?" asked Anzu, smiling with him. 

            "Oh…" Yuugi stopped laughing, and although his smile didn't fade, he paled a bit. "Yeah, once…"

            The classroom drowned in silence, to be suddenly broken by yells of '_WHAAAAAAT???_', '_SPIT IT_', '_WHO THE HELL WAS_' and '_I GONNA SEND'IM TA HELL_'. Yuugi held his hands up reassuringly, while mouthing (his voice couldn't be heard) 'easy, easy, calm down…'

            Eventually the teenagers calmed down, and Yuugi could go on with his little tale, his hands seeming to slide back to the puzzle on the table without him noticing. "Once a group of scary guys tried to rob me in the middle of the street. Now… isn't that funny?… if they had taken me to a dark corner, people would've gotten more suspicious…" he muttered. "Anyway, one of them lifted me through my backpack and opened it with me still hanging from it… and then he said 'Oh, oh, look at what I've found here!!' and picked the box."

            "Mm-hm, mm-hm!" the others nodded, expectantly. 

            "Ahmn, well, you must be expecting some big surprise to save me and the box and all, but…" Yuugi scratched his head, looking nervous and paling a bit more, as if he repented having brought the matter on. "I was so scared that I couldn't even make a sound, and when he picked the box I got so… so… I don't know, panicked, appalled, desperate, the thing is, I scarcely remember what happened, it was all confusing and my mind was simply _numb_…"

            The audience rebelled. 

            "Who cares!!"

            "Go on!!"

            "We're curious!!"

            He smiled, sheepishly. "I… really can't remember… my mind _was_ really numb and dizzy, and I can only recall some fuzzy scenes of quick movements and my body being moved around like I was a doll…" he trembled slightly, seeming suddenly cold, his fingers unconsciously grasping the puzzle pieces harder. "The next thing I remember is suddenly seeing myself with my backpack semi-destroyed and hanging from a strap, my uniform torn and dirty, and the box between my hands… I looked around and saw that I was standing at a dark alley, more than half the city away from where I was before. And the only thing I felt at that moment was that I was incredibly tired, and that the box was with me and I, I knew I was safe and it was safe…" He was shaking more evidently, although he seemed to be fighting it. "I, I felt so tired I didn't dare to move from where I was standing, because I was already dizzy and if I moved anymore I, I would probably fall… I eventually tried to, to take a step, but, but my body hurt all over and I was suddenly on the floor…"

            Jounouchi was shaking in symbiosis with Yuugi, his face the exact color of mint cream, his lips alarmingly pale. "C-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-c-creepy…" cackled him, his voice sounding falsetto.

            Honda would make a great success at a Halloween party, looking like a ghost. "T, that sound more like a nightmare… are you sure they didn't just knock you out and you dreamed all this?"

            Anzu was _indignant_. "You never even _mentioned_ that to me!! Let me guess, it was on that month you'd go completely spaced out to school, with that creepy dazed look!! People would call you and you'd turn to them slowly, with your eyes all open and staring at nothing. It looked like you had seen a 24-hour horror movie special on TV at a stormy day with your lights off!! Even the bullies of the class thought you were creepy and left you in peace for the whole year…"

            "Y, yeah, you got it right… I was still scared after that thing, grandpa was worried too… and mom came back from a trip and got really scared. She delayed any other trip for the rest of the month, so she could take care of me." He looked down, ashamed. "It wasn't really… a bad month. At least she was worried about me, ne…"

            Once again the classroom echoed the silence between them, the only sounds being the "pachi, pachi" of the puzzle pieces. The boys looked at that Yuugi, the one unknown from the whole school, all the bullying and prejudice replaying themselves into their heads; both wanted to bury their heads into a hole and disappear from the world. But that Yuugi wasn't unknown to Anzu at all - in fact, it was the real Yuugi, the one she had known since little… trust him to keep a secret for years just to keep her from danger. He always cared more about the others than about himself.

            Suddenly the object of their thoughts slumped face-first on the desk, like a rag doll. 

            A fly could be heard somewhere by the window. The ventilator seemed to sound like an helicopter. Surprise kept the silence for a few more seconds before they finally chorused:

            "**WHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA?!?!?!?!?**"

            Two pairs of hands started shaking the fainted boy to each possible side, while the remaining pair was occupied pulling the blond hairs of its owner, that was running around in circles. 

            "WAKE UP, WAKE UP!!"

            "PLEASE ANSWER, YUUGI!!"

            "WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH! YUUGI'S DYING, YUUGI'S DYING, YUUGI'S DYING!!"

            The above interjections and all their variants repeated themselves in a chain, until the main cause of the mess started giving some signs of consciousness. (Admirable, since, after being shaken around like that, he should have broken the neck or something). They looked at his fluttering eyelids, and sighed in relief at the same moment. 

            "Hnn…" he moaned, pressing a hand on one of his sleepy eyes and sitting with some effort. "…did I zzleep…?"

            Once again, the classroom saw itself choking into the silence, but this time it lasted longer, since none of the eyewitnesses really knew what to answer the boy. One could swear he had a stroke, the way he passed out…

            Yuugi laughed weakly, swinging back and forth on the chair, like a drunk, and with dark rings under his eyes. "Mm sorry…" he mumbled, confusedly, his eyes seeming about to roll into his head at any moment. "…'t happenzz… when… piecin' the puzzlw… fwelin' tired… and thenzz… mayb'n my… brainzz… overworkzz or som'thin'…"

            Suddenly the bell rang, giving them all a scare (well, Yuugi didn't even seem to notice). Loud noises of children running up the stairs could be heard, and the floor and walls trembled with the stomps.

            "Well, Yuugi, you'd better put your puzzle away", said Anzu, just to discover that Yuugi had slumped on the desk again, this time smashing the puzzle and putting all the pieces apart, spreading them on the floor. Hurrying, they picked all pieces, making sure there was none forgotten, and put them into the box, that was hurriedly shoved into his backpack, just as their classmates arrived.

            The teacher arrived just then, opening the student list, and then noticing Yuugi smashing his nose on the wooden desk. He lifted an eyebrow, looking at Anzu, that usually knew when anything was wrong with the boy. 

            "He, um…" Anzu began. "He had to stay all night up… his grandfather caught a strong cold, or something…"

            The teacher seemed satisfied with the answer, beginning to call names for homework listing. 

            "I hope Yuugi doesn't snore" Jounouchi muttered to Honda, that agreed. 

~~*~~*~~

            The bell rang, and they all left the classroom. Yuugi still looked tired, earning him some glances from classmates - that weren't more interested in him than ever, but wanted to see the boy's eye rings for memory sake. Jounouchi grumbled at some of them, as if he was Yuugi's dog, and Honda laughed a bit. Anzu looked worried.

            "Are you sure you can go back home like this?" she asked, reaching a hand to his shoulder. "Sincerely, you look like you could drop sleeping anytime, just like before…"

            "I'm alright" he said, in a tone that showed he had said that 222 times before. (A.N.: Yeah, I like _Sleeping Sun_!! _Nightwish_ rules!!) "I slept over two classes and I'm fine. I'll just sleep some more at home, so don't worry." Anzu seemed to be about to say some other thing, but Yuugi, clearly irritated, started first. "And NO, I'm not going home by bus. And I have money, I could go if I wanted to. So don't talk about lending me some, I-DON'T-WANT, I'm going by feet."

            "Let him be, Anzu. He can be more stubborn than a brick wall" said Jou, earning a sideways glance from Honda that practically screamed _Look who's talking_. He didn't notice it, keeping on. "I DON'T have money to go by bus, but none of you is offering…"

            "You have two hours till work" Honda said, eying him. "And, anyway, you're not passing out. Yuugi is."

            "I'M NOT!!! How annoying!" Yuugi _was_ annoyed. "Thanks for worrying, but you're overdoing it! I'm not going to fall here and now!!"

            He sighed, turning around again. They had reached the point were he had been beaten up. For a moment, the three boys kept silence, remembering the stains that had been there not much more than a week ago; and Anzu tried to see what was so interesting on the floor, without finding anything worth looking. 

            A small, delicate woman in cleaning uniform approached them, smiling. "Looking for anything, sweeties?"

            "Oh!…" Yuugi lifted his head to her, and bowed. "We're sorry for being on the way."

            "It's nothing, the corridor is wide enough for all students to pass by", she said, sweetly. "It isn't really cleaning time yet, but I want to know the place. I'm new at this school. It's a pleasure to meet such nice and polite kids."

            "Ahaha, nothin' big!" laughed Jou, stupidly, probably wanting the cleaner to know that, although they were nice, not all of them were polite. 

            If the woman noticed, she hid it very well, smiling sweetly at him too. "Excuse me for now, I'll look at the floor upstairs… nice to meet you, my name is Haruno Takasugi. Please take very good care of yourselves, and good luck." Before they could ask what she meant, though, she had disappeared in the middle of the descending students.

            Yuugi looked at the guys, but Honda and Jounouchi just shrugged at the same time and Anzu shook her head. Shrugging also, he took a step forward, just on the place he had been beaten on - and suddenly he felt a blanked wrap itself around his consciousness. 

            Mind numb, he distantly felt he was falling in slow-motion, although at the same time something… something seemed to be moving his feet with great effort, going ahead, ahead… something holding him from falling, like hands around his chest, his feet moving on their own, such effort… he breathed painfully, slowly…

            …and suddenly tripped and fell on the floor on his knees, time back to normal, his mind back to normal. He had taken some three steps away from the place. The students were still walking, none of them bothering to help him, as always; but all of a sudden he felt the warmth of Anzu's hands (somehow, he recognized it right away) trying to lift him from behind. Her voice started getting intelligible to his ears, while the surprise faded away. 

            "Anzu" he breathed out, voice husky and weak.

            "…I told you not to push yourself too hard, and NO, NO WAY you're going home by feet in this state, you're sweating cold!"

            "Anzu!" his voice was suddenly strong. "I'm alright! I just tripped! Stop getting all worked up about it, jeeez!" he got up on his own, although his knees trembled. "I'm sincerely grateful for your worry, but it's making me feel I'm uselessly weak…" 

            Anzu stayed silent, looking at him as if she could see through his skin. He looked to the other two boys; Honda seemed to have also approached him when he fell on the floor, but Jounouchi was standing on the same place, lips white - although Jounouchi was the most fair-skinned of them, it seemed to be easier to notice when he paled; blame him for having reddish-pink lips. He was starting to notice Jou paled for any reason, not only fear; hunger, worry, sometimes confusion (teachers get worried at him on tests; it always looked as if he was about to pass out)…

            He smiled at them, his normal smile. "Look, I'm okay, nothing to worry about! And I don't want to delay you. Don't you have to baby-sitt today, Anzu? And your cousin is spending the week at your house, isn't he, Honda-kun?"

            They nodded, uncertain; looking at each other and then at Yuugi, they said good-bye and left, faces still serious. Yuugi and Jounouchi stayed in the same position, facing each other. Jounouchi's pale lips finally moved, the last students passing by them.

            "…I have two hours before work."

            "I know" Yuugi muttered, and his knees gave up, making him fall. He breathed, trembling, finally letting the panic cover up his mind like a tsunami, the tiredness washing over his terribly strained body. He moaned weakly, his body aching. 

            "Jounouchi-kun… I don't have money to go by bus…"

            Jounouchi approached him, and crouched, his back to the smaller boy. "Fine. Let's go walking, and Anzu won't see us."

~~*~~*~~

            Anzu and Honda arrived at the bus stop, faces still serious. The sun was setting earlier, sending a reddish light to the street. Cars passed, now and them, reflecting the blood sky. Suddenly Honda spoke.

            "So, he's this type of guy, eh?"

            She nodded, quietly. He looked at the ground, biting his lip.

            "I think…" his voice faltered. "I think we'll need to pay a lot of attention on him…" he laughed a little, but his voice cracked. "I really think we'll need to take very good care of him…" 

            They couldn't help thinking the same thing - _Do your part, Jounouchi_.

~~*~~*~~

            Later, on the way to the Kame Game Shop, Yuugi - in Jounouchi's back - suddenly laughed, still weak. "Aren't I uselessly weak…? This is so pitiful…"

            "Yuugi…"

            Silence lingered on the air for a moment. 

            "…I think I saw… something back there. Above you."

            Yuugi was still quiet.

            "I don't know if it was imagination or not, but I saw… when you stepped _there_, and started falling, I saw… above you… something like a silhouette…" He felt Yuugi tense on his back. "I think the others didn't see it, because it was there for less than a second, and they didn't seem to be surprised or scared, they jumped to you, while I was frozen in place…"

            Yuugi couldn't help but notice Jounouchi was angry with himself. He probably felt bad for not helping Yuugi.

            "If I saw a shadow looming over someone, I wouldn't get frozen." Yuugi laughed a bit. "I would most probably have a heart attack and drop dead…"

            "Don't play with that" Jounouchi's voice never sounded so darkly serious, not even when he threatened to jump from a bridge. Then it softened somewhat, although it still sounded shadowed with worry. "Yuugi… it was probably my imagination, although it was… disturbing. But, now that I think…" he stopped for a moment, looking ahead at no real place "…that silhouette… it didn't seem to be 'looming'."

            The boy was puzzled with those words. "What do you mean by 'not looming'?"

            "You'll probably think it's funny" he said, still serious, but blushing a little "but, the way it leaned over you, with its arms lifted to the side… I don't know, it looked… it seemed… _not_ to be looming. I don't really know how to explain… it just didn't look bad. And, anyway, it appeared _after_ you started falling… it was just a second, but…" he looked to the ground. "Well, I can't explain."

            "Then, why were you so pale?"

            "Yuugi…" he seemed to be laughing or choking, it was difficult to know "I don't know if you remember it or not, but, I'm _afraid_ of weird things that remind me of _ghosts_, like _silhouettes_ leaning over my friends, you know…"

            Yuugi laughed a bit, the atmosphere easying a bit. The Kame Game Shop was near, and Sugoroku would jump half a meter when his grandson arrived home on the back of a friend, looking weak and tired as if he had been running the marathon the entire day.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Yay! First part is done. Took me a while. I'm _slow_ when writing fanfiction (or anything that I consider important, category that doesn't include homework), that must be because I'm Capricorn and capricornians are perfectionist. I have to read and re-read each paragraph I write to see if it's alright, if I forgot a word, if it's confusing, check punctuation, even try checking spell errors. It's been 12 days since I started writing this (counting, of course, the days I didn't touch it at all), and I haven't gotten Word back yet, although my super-monitor is striking back!! ^___^ Well, what I wanted to say is that, without Word, I can't be sure about spell check, so bear with me, please. 

By the end of the chapter, I was hearing Alanis Morrisette, Red Hot Chilli Peppers and Creed on the radio, then it started a boring music and I put my Enya cd. From that you can say I'm eclectic, but truly, I hate funk, forro and samba - I'm Brazilian but hate samba, well, I'm not alone at all (wave to my back, crowd cheers from behind), see? We are rock, metal and classic lovers. I'm still crying because I couldn't go to Nightwish's show at _ATL Hall_, but, oh, well, what can I do if I have a cheepskate of a father, that goes to Caneco 90 to dance forro (yeargh) and can't take me to a rock concert once in my life. (Sob)

After all this random talk, I just wanted to warn you that next chapter can come in a month or in a year - you never know. Mystery of life. Will you review? Pleasepleaseplease?? (puppy eyes) And I hope some parts weren't too sappy or something. It's just that I'm big fan of angst but I also like happy things and romance and such… go figure.

Ah, on a footnote, at TGLoA, there was a point in which I wrote "spitted" instead of "spat"… GOMENGOMENGOMEN (banging head on the wall) I CAN'T BELIEVE I'LL GET A CERTIFICATE AT ENGLISH LANGUAGE THIS YEAR AFTER MAKING SUCH AN ERROR!!! WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!


	2. The piece, the tiles, the shadows

**Eye Gate Deep 02**

**"The pieces, the tiles, the shadows…"**

**By Elanor Pam**

            Hello, hello. Today is July 30, 2002. I started this chapter one day after posting the first one at Fanfiction.net. Let's use that to keep track of just how long it takes me to get satisfied with what I write. And still no Word, sob… I'm beginning this with WordPad, again, but let's hope my sister will get the Office tomorrow. I _don't want_ to have to format everything all over again at Dreamweaver, I want a program able to save in html format.

            To get some inspiration while writing this, I took a look at some Yu-Gi-Oh pics. Isn't Yuugi amazing? So kawaii… and when he transforms… so kakoi (drools)… and when Jounouchi is at the same pic, they look _cool_, definitely! I think they make a wonderful pair! (NOT couple, you crazy yaoi-lovers out there!! I'm talking about partnership!!) Anyway, I kinda lost track of what I was going to do here, so let me read the first chapter (although that was more like a prologue) all over again… (after reading) oh, well, I got the trail back. Let's begin before I forget the whole bloody thing again. 

            Hm… forgot to put it before: 

~*~*~*~*~*~ beginning/end of the chapter

~~*~~*~~ change scene and main events (meaning it won't appear if the main event is the same)

~~+Flashback+~~ begin/end flashback

July 31, 2002: Yay, got Office back!!! (bouncing around bedroom) YAYAYAYAYAY!! Me so happy!! I missed those red and green underlines soooooooooo much!! (Yay, Word's underlining my "soooooooooo"!!) *after a minute* How annoying, these things. (cancels spellchecker and makes a lot of mistakes) Sigh, oh, well.

Just a note: This chapter will be confusing. It has a main event with some flashback placed at random. It'll make sense in the end (or maybe it won't, making sense only for me). Well, this chapter won't bring in any light for you guys, so sorry. 

Disclaimer: That old boring stuff we all know and love. Yu-Gi-Oh is Japanese, I'm Brazilian; we're in opposite sides of the world. Don't worry, someday I will create my own manga, and you'll be sending disclaimers for me. (insert evil laughter)

~*~*~*~*~*~

~~+~~+~~+Flashback+~~+~~+~~

            A golden piece fell slowly, bouncing on the floor and revolving on the air, falling and bouncing again on the gray tiles of… the classroom?

            It shimmered; its engraved eye seemed to be alive. The three teenagers crouched on the floor, picking the fallen pieces quickly as the walls started to tremble at the sound of the running students, that hated going to school but ran up the stairs energetically, anyway. 

            Jounouchi looked under his sleeping friend's desk, finding the fallen piece. Handing his found ones to Honda, he reached a hand to it, and picked it. It shimmered and suddenly Jounouchi's eyes seemed glassy… and his grip weakened, the piece fell on the floor. On the same place. And disappeared in thin air.

            The floor disappeared. The desks, Yuugi, Anzu and Honda disappeared. Jounouchi felt he was falling…

            …and woke up at 3:00 a.m., sweaty and out of breath. He didn't remember picking any eye-carved puzzle piece under Yuugi's desk that day, now did he? It was just a dream… just a stupid silly dream… let's go back to sleep. Tomorrow (or today) is Saturday, extra classes, remember. And they were going to Yuugi's again that afternoon.

            At school, during lunchtime, though, while the others were talking about Yuugi's condition since that other day (he looked like he had a serious disease; but the doctor found out he just had a strong anemia and lack of vitamins, and he also seemed to be hungrier than ever), his pen fell on the floor, just under Yuugi's empty desk. He crouched on the floor to pick it…

~~+~~+~~+End flashback+~~+~~+~~

~~*~~*~~

            Yuugi would have to stay home and rest for sometime, as Sugoroku had shouted when he and Jou arrived on that fateful day, while the small boy whined and complained faintly at his companion's back. So Yuugi hadn't gone to school the entire week, although he probably half-hated it (some part of him would like a break from school - he's a normal guy after all), and would be bored to hell if he didn't have the puzzle with him - but even piecing the puzzle seemed a big effort to him; he would tire quickly and sleep with it still on his hands. 

            His three friends paid visits everyday, making his bed-days happier and leaving him utterly grateful for it. And he wouldn't get tired of showing that in any possible way, including getting out of bed (despite protests and even threats) to bring tea and cookies, although he'd end up eating great part of them without even noticing. But, despite his cheerfulness, his looks left the group more and more scared each day - he seemed paler than Jounouchi after watching _Scream_ parts I, II, III, IV and so on at a dark and empty movie theater with 3D sound effects. 

            On that Saturday afternoon, the three teenagers entered the Game Shop, still commenting the doctor's diagnosis. The memory of him slumping twice on the desk and falling on the floor, like wet paper, was still fresh; and for the last week he had looked like a cadaver, eyes with purple rings and lips white, so it's understandable that they almost jumped on the shelves of the store when they saw the kind little boy looking fine, thanks, behind the counter, wearing a dark-gray coat, beaming at them… 

            "Hi!! I'm better!!"

            …although they let whatever they had on their hands fall on the floor, including a newly-bought manga, an egg-cheese-burger soaked with ketchup and mustard (that fell on the manga) a McDonald ice-cream, a cup of lemonade and a thick book on yoga, that smashed (opened, to top it all) on everything. 

            "Oh, I'm sorry, I scared you!" Yuugi ran from behind the counter, picking the book while they looked at him as if he was a ghost. "Oh, Anzu's book is ruined - wait, wait, maybe I can clean it!! Could you wait here?"

            He turned to take the book to the counter, but Anzu's hand was quicker, grabbing him by his oversized coat. "What on _earth_ are you doing _out_ of your **_BED_**?!?!?" she almost screamed, Yuugi's face looking like a child caught doing something naughty.

            He turned, smiling sheepishly. "Oh, well…"

            Jounouchi and Honda were picking the mess on the floor, their faces nonchalant. "We should've expected this, you know." said Jounouchi. 

            "I'm starting to think he's more like a stubborn brick wall than you." answered Honda, wisely, and Jounouchi smashed the ice-cream cone on his head.

            Suddenly the shop's door opened, hitting the wall with all its might. They froze. 

            A shadowed figure was there, looking at Yuugi with eyes hard as steel. He held a briefcase in one of his hands, wearing an expensive tuxedo. His silhouette gleamed against the outside's light.

            "**_WHAT ARE YOU DOING OUT OF BED?!?!_**" shouted Sugoroku Mutou.

            Yuugi's lips started trembling, eyes filling with tears and shock. "…taking care of the store…" he muttered, almost inaudibly. 

            "Stop with the act, you're not fooling me!" Sugoroku turned the sign at the door to "Closed" and closed the door behind him, walking to the counter. 

            "Oh, dang!" Yuugi laughed, as if nothing had happened, and put the book on the counter, taking a handkerchief from a pocket and cleaning the book carefully. The boys looked at him from the floor, obviously impressed with Yuugi's acting skills, since they had completely believed Yuugi was crying and were ready to call Sugoroku a monster. Anzu, that was obviously also used to Yuugi's acting, didn't look any more impressed than the older man, and proceeded with the interrogation. 

            "So, why aren't you resting?" asked her, frowning. 

            "I'm taking care of the store, as I said" he answered calmly, looking down at the book he was cleaning, smiling lightly. His thick eyelashes, his peaceful look, suddenly something in him seemed to shine a soothing light; Anzu looked at him, in silence, while Sugoroku just smiled at his grandson, thinking what a present God had given him, and Jounouchi and Honda rubbed egg-cheese-burger at each other's faces. Then Yuugi was done, handing the book to Anzu, and the moment passed - he suddenly seemed to be no more than an undersized freaky weird boy with undetermined age. "Sorry, the stain didn't come off completely."

            "There was no need to do that. It's old, and I wanted to buy a newer edition anyway. By the way, Mutou-san, why are you dressed like that?" she addressed Sugoroku.

            "Business meeting" he said, taking the necktie off and throwing the briefcase at a corner.

            "A very important one, I'm sure of it!!" Yuugi added, cheerfully, standing on the tips of his feet to place a toy at a high shelf behind the counter. He remembered very well his grandpa going to _truly_ important business meetings with tennis, skull-stamped handkerchief on his forehead and so on, like a teenager; so he had some other hypothesis going around his head, confirmed by the old man's blush. The teenagers snickered, catching the idea in the air, and the old man snorted.

~~+~~+~~+Flashback+~~+~~+~~

            Jounouchi couldn't hold a yelp as he saw a golden carved puzzle piece just where he had seen it on his dream. No illusion, he noticed as he touched it, that _was_ a puzzle piece. From Yuugi's puzzle. He picked it, starring at the engraved eye. 

            "Whassup, Jou? What's this face?" asked Honda, leaning to look at what he held. He, too, dropped his pen. "…oh." 

            Anzu did the same, opening her mouth. "How come nobody has seen it until today?! Are the cleaners so lazy that they don't sweep under the desks?"

            Jounouchi slid a finger under Yuugi's desk. "It looks like it was swept just this morning" he held his finger up, showing just a bit of dust. "And the piece, too, is perfectly clean…"

            Honda frowned. "Weird…" he picked the piece cautiously, staring at the eye as if it had done something wrong. "This-thing-is-creepy, I'll tell you that. How does Yuugi manage to look at this almost every single day? If it was Jounouchi, he'd have long jumped from a bridge just from fearing it…"

            Jounouchi frowned; he sure as hell hated Honda's pseudo-wisecracks, he always rubbed salt in a wound without even noticing. But, still, he decided to keep the bridge thing to himself. "Nya-ha-ha, how funny." the blond boy's face was completely serious. "Gimme this thing; I found it, I'll give it back to him." 

            Without waiting for an answer, he picked it from his dark-haired pal and suppressed a chill - uselessly, as both companions noticed.

            "HYAHAHA! Jounouchi's afraid of a puzzle piece!!" laughed Honda, then making a mystical tone. "Beware, it's a cursed puzzle piece!! At night it'll come bouncing right into your mouth… and choke you while you SLEEP!!! MWAHAHAHAHA!!" he started laughing like a demented witch.

            Anzu couldn't help laughing a little at the idea, but argued on Jou's behalf anyway. "C'mon, stop that already. He can't help it, it would be the same if you were him. **STOP LAUGHING ALREADY!!!!**" she lost her temper (took her long enough) and threw her backpack at him.

            "Oh, uh… thank you, Masaki" Jounouchi said, with some doubts, as Honda tripped and turned three desks over the floor before finally losing his feet and falling, turning over another one. He looked at the carved piece again. An eye like that would creep him out normally, but he just thought it was a scary-looking carved eye and nothing bigger. That chill came for nothing, as he hadn't felt anything like fear on that moment.

            Suddenly the eye seemed to fill all his eyesight - and then gone, everything was nice, Honda trying to get up and Anzu fed up with him. It hadn't lasted half a second. It simply had grown like a ghost and blocked his sight, and then…

            _Now_ he was crept out of his mind, and _now_ he was really chilling. Trying for goodness sake to forget the thing, he pocketed it and proceeded to hide his face, or at least his lips, behind some binder or book, or they would notice he was paler than Yuugi had been that week. Touching his pocket lightly, he asked himself just _what_ was happening, because having two "visions" like that in less than a week could only mean two things: or there was something strange around or he was going nuts. 

            _Probably the second option_, he thought sarcastically. _Just my luck_.

            After some minutes of class, his head was so full he forgot about that.

~~+~~+~~+End flashback+~~+~~+~~

            "Now, I thought I left a note telling you to rest and leave the store closed for today", Sugoroku changed topics quickly, his voice gruff.

            "Did you?" Yuugi sounded innocent, fiddling around on the shelves, moving toys from place to place and leaving them in a more organized way.

            "Don't try to be smart, boy, I left three, one at the fridge's door, other on the milk box inside the fridge and the third inside the cookie can."

            "Oh, well, I just thought it was ok, because I was feeling fine…" he shrugged, turning to his grandfather. Sugoroku eyed him, and the boy got more serious, turning and standing at the tips of his feet again, organizing another shelf. "I know you don't really believe, but I woke up after 1:00 p.m., and I couldn't sleep more than that!! And I was feeling perfectly he--- Ah!" he leaned to the side, quickly, holding on a lower shelf not to fall.

            "Are you ok?!" the old man shouted, alarmed. The boys stopped their little food fight on the floor and got up in a jump, and Anzu looked ready to jump over the counter, forgetting there was a little door just by her side. 

            He turned, a bit scared at their over-reaction, holding up a little doll for all to see. "…it was falling, so I just held it…"

            They all sighed, slumping at whatever was there to hold onto. 

            Yuugi looked at them, wide-eyed, still holding the doll, as if frozen by their reaction; he breathed slowly, looking down, seeming thoughtful. He blinked once. Then he looked up again, with a little smile, but his eyes were sad. 

            Unconsciously, he held the doll against his chest, and tilted his head lightly to the side. His eyes shimmered, and once again he looked like a not-well-disguised angel between mortals.

            "…I'll go rest." 

            Carefully, he put the doll on its place, walking to the stairs behind the counter. The place was in silence.

            "Wait!" Jounouchi ran to the counter, lifting the door, and put a hand in his pocket. "I found it today, fallen just under your desk." He brought something golden out of his pocket, and Yuugi opened his mouth, speechless. "I think we missed it that day when you slept on it and half the pieces fell on the floor…" he laughed a bit. "Lucky no one found it before, not even the cleaners."

            Jounouchi smiled and picked Yuugi's limp arm, putting it into his hand. The boy stayed in that position, as if hit by a lightning, wide-eyed and open-mouthed. Finally, he managed to say something. 

            "Oh my…" his voice was barely audible. "Oh my… I could've lost it…" he leaned on the wall behind him with an arm, almost as if he was going to fall if he didn't. His voice trembled. "I could have lost it, I was so careless! I played with the puzzle the whole week and didn't even notice…" He looked again at the piece, just into the scary-looking eye. "And to think this piece should be the first I would notice gone! It's the only one with an engraving!! How careless…"

            Breathing heavily, he walked over to Jounouchi and bowed. "Thank you…" his voice was shaking. He continued bowing. "Thank you very much…"

            "Ok, ok, you're welcome, now go rest as you said you would" said the blond boy, quickly, looking away with embarrassment. Yuugi laughed a bit, still looking dazed, and walked up the stairs slowly, leaning on the wall. Four pairs of eyes followed him in silence until he disappeared.

            "He definitely hyperventilated when he saw the piece" Honda muttered. "And what's with that coat? The weather is getting cold, but not so much yet."

            "He's gotten a lot thinner" said Anzu, suddenly. "I noticed when I pulled him from behind. That thing was just to hide it. Why do you think it was so baggy, smart one?"

            "Thinner, you say thinner than he was before?" Honda pointed to the stairs openmouthed, although Yuugi was long gone from there. "How come he's still visible?"

            "That's serious, Honda" Jounouchi frowned. "Can you get worried or is it hard?"

            Sugoroku smiled. "Yuugi must be sick and tired of always bringing worry… he's been like this since he was a child. Do you remember, Anzu, when he broke his leg? When he finally told me, it had been three days already and he just couldn't walk anymore…"

            "How wouldn't I? He almost lost his leg because of it…"

            "Yes. Sometimes I wonder…" the old man sat down at the counter, looking tired. "…when did he change? He used to be such a crybaby when he was a child, and, suddenly, at seven years old, he became so stoic it was scary, and even dangerous to his health…"

            "Doing things like looking at bigger guys into their eyes without blinking once?" asked Jou, snickering. The elder looked at the teen, and laughed with him, until he kept on "It was a song he heard. Just it."

            Sugoroku's smile faded slowly, and he looked to the floor, thoughtful. His face showed some comprehension had dawned on him…

            "How do you know that?" asked Honda. 

            "He told me about it someday I was feeling down…" Jounouchi thought it was wiser to skip the 'and almost jumped from a bridge' part. "It seems he thinks about this song when he is feeling defeated, then he can keep on. He is surely a figure, isn't he?" He kept on, closing his eyes and smiling. "Sure helped me a lot…"

            Upstairs, unheard and unnoticed, a hand hang limp from the bed of its owner, dropping a golden box and spilling semi-pieced puzzle pieces in a circle, on the carpeted floor. Its bluish blood vessels could be easily seen through the hand's thin skin. 

            Yuugi's thin face looked alarmingly pale and drained. Breathing labouredly, if he were conscious he'd probably be thankful for suddenly losing all his strength THERE, and not in front of the others. But he was out cold, mind wandering in nothingness.

            If Jounouchi were there, he'd have a better opportunity to look at the "silhouette", as it swiftly and softly formed in the air, above the boy, and leaned until they were very close. It stayed in that position for some minutes, until suddenly melting away, leaving a sad feeling lingering on the air.

            Sugoroku smiled, as the teenagers waved good-bye and went back to their houses. He'd have an unpleasant surprise when he went upstairs to check on his grandson.

~~+~~+~~+Flashback+~~+~~+~~

The bell rang, and the students came out of their classrooms in a sudden flood, each one of them eager to go back to their houses, put on other clothes and enjoy themselves. 

Only three of them were eager to go somewhere else, and before heading home if possible. 

Anzu and Honda were still arguing about the backpack throwing case, but Jounouchi was worried, although he didn't really know why. Walking along the corridor in the middle of the crowd of students, he felt detached from the world, his mind registering faintly the noises around. Again, the teens stopped in front of the point where Yuugi had been beaten on, and again Anzu had no idea what they were looking at. 

For the boys, that spot had a special meaning; both Yuugi and Jounouchi had stained that place with their blood. Also, Honda had taped _that _point, witnessing his friend's torture to uncover the criminal. Anzu knew nothing of that, and probably never would; the criminal had companions, so the boys' part had remained a secret only the Headmaster and Yuugi knew about. But that wasn't what was in Jounouchi's mind, although Honda's was replaying the taped scenes on and on, to the boy's despair. 

In front of Jounouchi's eyes, Yuugi stepped on that place, on that _specific_ place, and his knee gave up, his small body falling forwards; he tried to take some more steps to equilibrate himself… 

…and a shadow flickered over his body for no more than a second, as he seemed to gain some control of the fall and landed on his knees, breathless. After that, he was completely drained out of energy. As if falling had taken all his strength away.

He had suddenly fallen ill _after_ that.

No way, no way, his imagination was just overworking. _It was just a coincidence…_

It _had_ to be just a coincidence.

He took a step forward, and he felt his stomach grow heavy, his blood flow cold, his eyes cover in darkness… for a second. Just a second. Why more than a second, if only one was enough to make the blond boy's skin crawl and his hair stand on an end? Did the "silhouette", as he called it in his mind, want to scare him? It didn't seem to want to touch Yuugi, though.

_Not looming… it was not looming… in my mind, it wasn't… **What in hell was it?!** What was that thing? There's only one thing I'm sure…_

_It WASN'T looming._

_This is SO dumb. I have no way to be sure…****_

"What's up with you two?" Anzu's voice tore him from his thoughts.

"Ah? What?" he came back to the real world, startled, and looked around. "Sorry, I spaced out…" he laughed, nervously, putting a hand behind his head. By his side, Honda had made the same movement, also laughing.

"You didn't answer me…" the girl's voice sounded quite… threatening. They paled.

"Ah!" a voice exclaimed, and they looked to see just the same cleaner they had met earlier that week. "Oh, the boys! So we meet again… but where's the little one?"

"Well, he…"

She didn't wait for Anzu to go on. "Oh, I wish he comes back to his feet soon. The school has been looking sadder these days… maybe it misses him."

"The school?" Anzu was puzzled, but the cleaner had already disappeared again, leaving the teens looking at nothing. They stayed there for sometime. 

"Don't you also have the feeling something's going on?" said Honda, without changing his face. 

"I'm quite sure of it" Jounouchi said, looking determined. He looked at the spot under his feet. 

And noticed something.

~~+~~+~~+End flashback+~~+~~+~~

~~*~~*~~

Normally Jounouchi would be going to his workplace at that time, even because it was almost evening. He didn't need to work on Saturdays, but he did, anyway, since money is always welcome and it gave him some more time away from his father. 

But today, at 5:49 p.m., sun setting, late autumn, he was heading towards another place. The sky was tinted a strong red, that spread around like a flamed fog. His face and clothes, his hair and eyes reflected the blood that seemed to swallow the birds and stain the clouds. 

He seemed bathed on fire.

The school clock hit 5:50 p.m. making a loud _tic_. The main gate was closed.

_No prob._

There was no one around; the whole street looked empty, something strange at that time on the day.

_Great._

He jumped the gate with the easiness that comes with long practice, and crossed the front yard of the school directly to the building's gate-door, casually. 

_No one around. Lucky day._

He was tall, but thin; passing between the top of the door and the ceiling was easy. He fell on the floor stealthily and agilely, and started walking towards the stairs. 

It was completely silent; Jounouchi really hated that. His hair was starting to stand, and his hands were quivering from anxiousness. He had had set-up fights behind the school at much later times, but never actually tried to enter the empty building. There wasn't anything to do there back then…

But right now, yes, there was; and Yuugi was right.

*…Still, I wonder why he would always hang around this floor after classes…*

*…always near our classroom, sweeping the same place over and over…*

Nobody paid attention to what he had said then. But oh damn there was something just too fishy about that. If the guy wanted to study the surroundings to rob the school, he should have done so somewhere near the Headmaster's room, or the main counter, or some other important place… not a completely normal corridor full of completely normal classrooms with completely normal students… well, not so normal.

…completely normal corridor full of completely normal classrooms…

…or maybe not so normal classrooms…

…or maybe not so normal corridor…

…geez, my brain's getting at weird places…

Something. 

A sound, somewhere near.

He quickly crouched on the stairs, leaning against the wall and ready to take impulse to run. Someone was walking nearby. 

Jounouchi's heartbeat pounded inside his ears.

A voice echoed on the walls, so suddenly that the boy almost fell the whole way down the stairs.

"Welcome to the Hotel California…

Such a lovely place…

Such a lovely face…"

Jounouchi almost fell again, but because of his relief. Just some cleaner sweeping around or something… wait, wait… that voice… what was the name again?

"Haruno Takasugi."

He glued himself against the wall. Now it was a male voice, probably someone coming from upstairs.

"Yes, mister?"

"Any luck with the closet door?"

"Oh, no, not yet, mister; but don't worry, I'll find the key and you won't need to break the lock."

"I trust you." The voice sounded like its owner was smiling. "You're far better than that one that was here before… hitting students around, how gross…"

"Poor man, probably had a terrible childhood… maybe he should see a psychiatrist?"

"He's in jail now."

"Oh, poor man!! It must be so terrible… nobody deserves such a thing…" her voice trembled. 

"You're too sweet for your own good. Aren't you done for today? What are you doing here so late?"

"Oh, I'm not done yet… I need to finish something up. It won't take long. And about you?"

"Uh, upstairs. Somehow the children manage to mess all the desks and leave them like there was an earthquake…"

"If you need any help, mister, call me."

"Sure. Make things easier for me!"

They laughed, and Jou heard steps going away. He breathed in relief.

And a broom hit him lightly on his head.

"Go home, it's late!!" whispered her. "You'll find nothing here today. Go away before they find you!!"

Jounouchi couldn't do anything aside from staring at her wide-eyed. Haruno Takasugi, was that? How did she… how could she… she was too weird…

"GO AWAY!!" she whispered, looking nervous. "IT'S DANGEROUS!! YOU-CAN'T-COME-ALONE!!"

He got some sense back on his body and nodded, running down the stairs as silently as he could with trembling legs. He couldn't check up on what he had noticed earlier that day… but he was quite sure of what he had seen. But… maybe she was right. That wasn't something he could poke into on his own. He needed some backup… but the only person he could talk about shadows and all without hearing snickers on his back was Yuugi… and he was in no condition to help. Who else would take him seriously?

Maybe he should try his luck…

Damn, if only I didn't have such a bad luck.

~*~*~*~*~*~

So, I officially finished this chapter at August 3, 2002!! How was it? Did you like it? I thought it would take longer, but I liked writing this chapter (although sis bugged me a little. Oh well). Funny thing is, when I had the flashback idea I was already writing the part Jounouchi hands Yuugi the eye piece. That's why we always should re-read what we're writing, guys. I though there was a plot hole so I thought how I should fill it in, and then I ended up giving Jou a hell of a big part on the plot! Yeah, he was only meant to notice the shadow, what would drag everybody in and such. I changed almost the whole thing, but fear not, Honda and Anzu aren't just for display either!! I just have to think a way to fit them in, as I already have some things in store for them. 

Now, I also want a way to fit Yuugi's mom in the story – not as a main character, as I don't plan on having her know about the puzzle anytime soon… I kind of imagine this woman as that kind that knows nothing of what's happening; she thinks Yuugi's school life is happy and he has no worry at all, a lot of friends, all these, you know… but I really want to shove her in, because I have a great revelation in store!! Any idea, guys? Please review!!

Also big thanks to Lily22 that has send such kind words. Thank you!! And don't expect the next chapter to come out so quickly, but, with me, who knows? I might be working on my web page, suffering from writer's block, having a temperamental computer, grounded or just being lazy. So enjoy while you can, and send comments, please!!


	3. Under the cherry tree

**Eye Gate Deep 03**

**"Under the cherry tree"**

By Elanor Pam 

            Hi! What do you think, eh, guys? Changed the title. The other was too lame. Well, this one too, but at least sounds mysterious. Not that it makes much sense, but, hey, it has a mysterious meaning… anyway, you mustn't forget my wonderful subconscious (is that right? Spellchecker says so…), that made me create the word "Fanelorn" and later realize it was a mix between "Fanelia" (Escaflowne) and "Quest for Tanelorn" (Blind Guardian). My story really has some things to do with the title… ^____^ So I'll let you try to guess what kind of twisted sense that thing has, while I'll go take a bath and wash my hair, for goodness sake, or I won't survive the night. 

            Oh, before that, today is August 6, 2002. I think this chapter will take a while… I slept the whole afternoon and forgot to look for a book my friend asked me. I also almost slept through my physics class. Understandable, I wasn't the only one dozing off on the classroom… It must be some nervousness, because my mother has been on a trip to France for over a month and is coming back tomorrow ^_____^!!! Anyway, I'll go wash my hair. Sit and wait. 

            (After washing hair, replying to an email, waiting for nee-chan to finish looking at her boyfriend pics and messing around with Meitantei Conan scanlations) Well, can you believe it, I'm back, feeling clean and refreshed. It was tough, though, because the bathroom light bulb burned and I had to take a bath with a candle inside the box. Unpleasant. Anyway, with my still wet hair ruining the chair, let's fly!!__

            August 7, 2002: MOM GAVE ME A FRENCH YGO MANGA, VOL. 6!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! YAY!! BUT I'M STILL WRITING THE FIRST PAGE OF THE FIC!! BUAAA!!

            Disclaimer: Oh, you read it at chapter 2 already. Stop bugging me.

~*~*~*~*~*~

            The phone rang once. And again. And once more. 

            Yuugi opened his bedroom's door, walking slowly, his snow-white pajamas rustling and his light blue slippers barely leaving the floor. That sucked. It was Sunday, all right, but being in bed on _Sunday_ was, for him, just as bad as for anybody else, no matter how weird he was. He didn't like being kept from school, but he'd prefer five school days lost than a Sunday away from the freedom outside the window. 

            It was raining; but, as much as Yuugi loved to sleep breathing in the fresh air and hearing the lulling sound of the rain, he had to get going and answer the phone. Grandpa was out on "business meeting" _again_; the store was closed _again_; he was weak, tired etc and all _again_; but at least he hadn't woken up at 1:00 p.m. again – it was eight in the morning. He picked the phone.

            "Mushi mushi, Mutou residence." He said, his voice as audible as he managed.

            "Yuu-chan, it's me."

            The feminine voice was serious, a bit worried; although it seemed used to severity, it had a soft undertone, that could be barely picked but was impossible to hide. 

            Yuugi gripped onto the phone with both hands – but, in reality, he wasn't sure which was going to fall if he let go, the phone or himself. He tried to talk, to utter a word, but he just couldn't; everything inside his chest seemed suddenly full of spikes… 

            "…m… mom…?"

            Oh, gods, it hurt _so_ much to say that single word, _so_ much; he wished he could die that moment.

            "Dad told me you were sick. I'm sorry I can't come back right now, I have things to do that can't be delayed…"

            He made a choking sound, his eyes drowning between tears. He wished he wasn't feeling so weak, because it seemed even more painful to control his tears, to hear that voice…

            "It's one of those chances that come only once in a lifetime… if I manage to do things correctly, we won't have anything more to worry about for a long, long time."

            So painful… so painful…

            "Maybe so long that you won't even be alive when the worry comes… can you manage?"

            He made an effort to make a sound. "I'll… I'll try…" it was barely a whisper.

            "No, you won't. You'll _do_ it. You're strong, and I'm sure your friends will help, won't they?"

            For once, the wound into his chest didn't fell tore in deeper. 

            "They're great!…" he choked, before he could restrain himself, and noticed he was losing the feeling of his legs; unable to keep standing, Yuugi fell on his knees. He could barely talk, but kept on, his voice shaking. "They've been going through so much to ease everything for me… they're coming home everyday to talk with me… they're helping me with the school work I'm losing right now… and…" his voice was becoming lower and lower, barely a murmur, but he still tried. "…and… they… they're amazing… they're… wonderful…"

            That was it. Yuugi started crying, sobbing desperately on the phone. The tears he held up with all his strength finally overflowed, and he couldn't hold it back anymore. A gaping sound was heard from the other side of the line, but the woman stayed quiet and waited patiently for him to calm down.

            Some more minutes passed, and Yuugi calmed down, little by little, until he could finally talk again. "S-sorry…" 

            "Don't be." She was quiet for a moment. "I have no contact phone to give you, but you've cried so much I'm thinking you've gotten too spoiled for my taste. So, you'd better learn to depend on you, and not on your grandfather or me!"

            Yuugi laughed, but his laugh was weak and agonizing. "Right…" he muttered, trying to wipe his tears off his face, to no avail. "We'll be waiting for you" his voice was softer than what he intended to, but he couldn't help it. "Please come back safe… and soon, okay?" 

            "Yes, yes, I will. Both safe and soon." A smile could be heard in her voice. "And you, now, go REST. You're always worrying everybody. And behave yourself."

            "I will…"

            "You had better. I have to hang up now, so go back to sleep."

            _I was awake_, thought Yuugi, but said nothing. "Ok, I will" his voice was steadier.

            "Bye, then."

            "Bye."

            The annoying 'busy line' sound replaced her voice, but Yuugi still kept the receiver between shaking hands. For some minutes he did nothing besides crying quietly, knelt on the floor, shoulders slumped; then, as if suddenly gaining life, he hanged the receiver up and slowly stood up.

            The boy walked down the corridor to his bedroom, a hand on the wall to equilibrate himself. Opening the door to his little corner, the sound of rain came to his ears again, and fresh air washed over him. 

            He turned his eyes to the slightly messed-up bed, but didn't see it. Slowly, he turned his head to the semi-opened window. Still, his eyes seemed to see nothing. 

            He walked slowly towards the window, raising a hand absently as if to open it. He put his hand on the window glass, his empty eyes looking ahead, towards the clouded sky and the blur of the city underneath; his pale and thin reflection stared at him, unnoticed, with a speck of worry into its eyes.

            But the true eyes were glassy, completely devoid of emotions, as they looked towards some indistinct place; suddenly the eyes blurred, and tears came out again. But Yuugi's expression didn't flicker at the least, as trails were made once again on the face he had wiped with such effort. 

            "You are there" he said, his voice cracking, but his tone steady. "I know you're there, and you're looking at me now."

            Only silence answered this disturbing comment. 

            "I want to see you."

            The rain pounded stronger, blurring the city even more.

            "I want to meet you…"

            His tone also started to waver, as the hand on the glass trembled. As quickly as it had strengthened, the rain weakened until it became just a drizzle.

            "I want… to know you…"

            The weather seemed to calm slightly, the rain gently falling, as the clouds got a bit lighter in tone and the city seemed to receive a bit more of light. Yuugi finally blinked, letting more tears flow, and slowly slid the window to the side. 

            He leaned on the windowsill, looking down at the street. Drops of rain fell on his hair, looking like pearls, shining under the dim light of the clouded day. A sound box played on a lamppost near that window. 

_            So many nights alone_

_            Without you by my side_

_            I never knew what I was missing…_

            He smiled lightly. "I want to visit you…" he muttered, leaving the open window behind him and stumbling to the chestrobe. He paid little attention to the song playing into the rain, and fumbled into a drawer until he found a photo. Looking at it, his eyes softened as if they were ice melting into water…

            Yuugi looked terrible; his face pale and wet from tears, his eyes ringed, his hair messier than the usual, apart from his growing thinness. But the water drops on his messy hair… the soft light shining into his eyes… and the smile that slowly sneaked into his lips, full of tenderness, of sweetness, of innocence, while he looked at that picture… 

            Outside, the song had kept on going.

            _Angel on my shoulder_

            _You give me shelter_

            _You give me love and affection…_

            The lights were off, the sky was clouded; but still he seemed to glow. The white clothes… the glowing spots on his hair… the shining eyes… the pure and kind smile… one could even swear seeing wings on his back. He held the photo to his chest, his heart warm, without a single idea of how angelic he just looked at that moment, as if inspired by the song. 

            _And every time I turn around_

            _You're still right here…_

            "…I'm coming to you" he whispered, and even his voice sounded heavenly. 

            And that was when a silhouette formed above him, arms open wide, leaning over him as if to embrace; as quickly as it came, it disappeared, leaving just an indefinite feeling. 

            _Angel, my angel…_

            Yuugi yawned, his fingers too numb to keep holding his treasured picture; he stumbled backwards, trying to keep his balance, but eventually fell on the bed, completely asleep. The picture fell on the floor, at the same moment.

            Indeed, an angel had fallen in the Mutou residence.

            _Oooh, my dear…_

~~*~~*~~

            Sugoroku had come back earlier, that day. It was barely past noon and, judging by the frown he had on his face, his "business meeting" hadn't been that successful. Shaking the umbrella and spilling water on the shop's floor, he closed the door behind him with a bang. Indeed, he was in a bad mood. 

            He sat on the counter for some time, thoughtful, and looked at the clock. He was sure the boys would be there at any time… standing up, he went to check up on Yuugi. 

            _'Good'_, he thought as he saw Yuugi sprawled on the bed. _'He's not wandering around. He'd better stay in bed all day.'_

            He frowned, noticing he seemed to have fallen on the bed from a standing position. _'Must have tried to get up, though. So stubborn, hell…'_ Fixing the boy's position, he covered him again, tenderly moving some blond bangs of hair away from his face. 

            He smiled and left the bedroom, without glancing at the floor. It would be useless if he did, though.

            There was no picture on the floor by then. 

~~*~~*~~

            Jou sighed, preparing himself for the worst.

            "Guys, I…" he gulped and blurted the rest out "I know you'll probably think I'm crazy and I'll probably be sent to a madhouse or something but I swear on my life I saw a creepy shadow above Yuugi last Monday when he passed out and I swear there's something weird about the new cleaner and the school." he panted heavily, wiping sweat from his brow and looking at his audience. 

            His Dragon Ball Action Figures kept a sepulchral silence, standing completely still on his writing desk, each one in a different pose. For some reason, Jounouchi doubted his friends would have a different reaction, at least for the ten seconds that would pass before they fell on the floor laughing. 

            As if on cue, the Vegeta action figure fell, knocking all the others in a big mess. 

            Jounouchi sighed pitifully. "Fine, laugh all you want…" he muttered, falling sat on the floor. "Now there has to be a better way for that… now, hm, how can I begin…?" 

            After some more minutes of pondering, he got up, rearranging his action figures again. "Ah, hm, this has to sound natural. Hey guys, remember that new cleaner that came on Monday?" 

            Silence. 

            "Oh, yeah, she was called Haruno Takasugi. Didn't you think she was weird?" 

            Silence. 

            "Yeah, and those weird comments she made about Yuugi, and that we had to take care of ourselves…" 

            Silence. 

            Jounouchi sighed, glaring at the little innocent action figures, that looked at him curiously, each one in a different pose.

            "Know what? You're not helping."

            The Vegeta action figure fell, knocking the rest in a big mess. 

            "SCREW IT!! CRAP!!" Jounouchi threw the poor action figures on the floor, and leaned on the desk, trying to suppress a sudden urge to bang his head on the wall. "I may be crazy, but oh heck, someone needs to know about this!" _Not necessarily_, was what some part of his brain answered. What was the problem of doing it alone? He wasn't afraid… was he?

            He didn't know; but he had a bad feeling that seemed to get stronger each passing day. The old cleaner, guarding a specific point at the third floor; the excuse of a planned robbery, that was given by the man; the new cleaner, acting as if she knew a lot more than she should; Yuugi, passing out, at bed, drained; the puzzle piece under the same desk for almost a week… puzzle… yeah, it looked like a nasty puzzle, and the pieces were there – not all of them but enough to begin – and they had to assemble the thing before it was too late and _someone had to finish it if he couldn't_. 

            Something cold gripped at his guts. That thought had come by itself, he didn't… he wasn't conscious of that. But some part of him knew it was right; he was getting himself in something dangerous, and wouldn't get out of that mess unscathed.

            _'They'll probably laugh… say I'm seeing things… but if something happens to me, they'll know it was true. Yes… **I'm definitely telling ev'rything to them!!**'_

            He got up, not bothering with picking his action figures, and went out of the house before he could give up. He didn't even notice his hands were trembling… he looked at his clock – 1:00 p.m. Just in time for them to go to Yuugi's. Maybe Yuugi could give him some help with that… turning a corner, he saw the others a bit ahead. 

            He shouted "Hey", but what came out was little more than a squeak. Anyway, they heard him and turned. "You're late!!" Honda lifted a wrist, showing his clock to emphasize his point. 

            Jounouchi approached them, feeling his legs like jelly. "S-sorry" he tried to say, but his voice wouldn't come out.

            "Uh, what?" Honda leaned closer. 

            "SOOOOOOrry, I said" Jou finally managed to make a sound, but his voice trembled. 

            Honda and Anzu looked at each other, and then at Jounouchi again. Some seconds passed, the lively street buzzing around them, and then Anzu voiced their thoughts. "Are you feeling all right, Jounouchi?"

            "Yes, I am" he squeaked again, twisting his face in a pseudo-smile, while he tried to dry his hands, leaving a wet stain on his jeans. He kind of expected a _certain_ something when Honda approached him, with a serious face, and put a hand on his shoulders… 

            "Look, Jounouchi, we know that you're as stubborn as a rock, and also that you're very worried about Yuugi and all, but… remember what the school doctor said, it _isn't_ healthy for you to get stressed…"

            Yes, that was _exactly_ what he had expected. "Honda, it has nothing to do with th…!" He stopped in mid sentence, remembering what he had in mind some minutes ago. He sighed. _'Alley jack east…'_ he screwed up Julius Caesar phrase.

            "Well, it has something to do with what you said, Honda— in fact, two words between what you said…"

            "Uh, what was it that I said?" Honda asked Anzu, that shot him an annoyed glance. "Oh, I remembered! Hm, let me guess, then…" he thought for a moment. "'Worried' and 'Healthy'?"

            "Nah-ah" Jou shook his head, a bit amused.

            "'Stubborn' and 'Stressed'?"

            "Nope."

            "'Rock' and 'doctor'?"

            "That was _far_."

            Anzu finally lost her patience, knocking Honda on the head with her purse. "Stop being dumb!! Whatever it is, surely it has something to do with Yuugi!"

            Jounouchi laughed a little. "Yeah, she's right… It's 'Yuugi' and 'school'."

            They looked at him, stopping any gesture in mid-air. Somehow it reminded Jounouchi of his action figures, and it felt like a bad omen.

            "But we've been taking the school work to Yuugi everyday…"

            "Unless you're worried with Yuugi _and _with school…"

            "Yeah, that makes sense, your grades suck…"

            Their comments faded while he shook his head. "No, I, I think… I-I-I just t-think… f… FORGETITSNOTHING—" he tried to turn around and drop into a hole on the ground, but that street had no hole and they caught him before he could run.

            "No way, you're gonna spit it or I'll make you sorry!"

            "HONDA!! And YOU, Jounouchi, are going to spit it or I'll make you feel sorry!!"

            "…you're gonna laugh~~~~~" the blond boy whimpered, making the other two stop in their tracks.

            Honda sputtered, and suddenly started to laugh ('_I didn't even tell him yet…_', thought Jounouchi) "Don't tell me… don't tell me… you think there's some spirit or something at school attacking Yuugi or I don't know what…!" he laughed, holding his aching belly and attracting a lot of glances from passersby. He wouldn't be laughing like that if he had seen Jounouchi's face, but he hadn't, so he kept on. "Hah, probably it's an envoy from 'Negaverse' stealing Yuugi's energy… Gyahahahaha!!"

            "Yesterday" began Jounouchi, his voice so serious, clear and menacingly low that one couldn't compare it with his squeaks from before. He turned to them, his face completely different from what they had last seen – serious, DEADLY serious… "I went to the school, to check up on something I noticed on the floor. That new cleaner, Haruno Takasugi, was there. I was hidden at the stairs, the place was dark and she was away, but _she knew I was there_." 

            "Uhm…" began Anzu. "Are you sure you just didn't hide well? 

            "I doubt so" he kept on. "She was talking to some guy and he didn't even notice me. She simply knew _where _I was and _why _I was there… and that's something damn weird, don't you think?" he put his hands in his pockets.

            "Ahn, can we talk about it somewhere that's not the middle of the street?" Asked Honda, looking around at the curious people. Jounouchi grabbed their arms and led them away – now that he had begun, it was much easier to go on. '_To hell with what happens, I need backup…_'

            The other teens looked at each other again, asking themselves where he was taking them.

~~*~~*~~

            Jounouchi wasn't sure of where he was going, but still he felt he was going on the right direction. Geez, he was getting crazier and crazier with each passing day… he had been walking around the city, turning corners and alleys he had never seen before, for about ten minutes. Anzu and even Honda were annoyed enough to snap at him, but his face would shut any of them up – though they didn't know why.

            Suddenly his feet stopped walking on their own, and he looked around to see that he had arrived at a park. Although the sky was clouded, the grass was green and wet from the recent rain, and the place gave a peaceful feeling, freshness lingering on the air. The trees were all rusty-golden; some flowers still hadn't given up. It was a beautiful place, even in autumn – almost empty of people, though. 

They were standing under the naked branches of a cherry tree. "This place will do", said Jounouchi, turning to see an enraged Anzu.

            "Since when did you know about this square?" spat her, indignant, surprising the two boys. "This is Yuugi's secret place!! He was thinking of showing you this on summer!!" she shoved Jounouchi's hand and slapped him on the face. "You've followed him, didn't you? You destroyed his surprise! Don't you have feelings??" 

            Yes, Jounouchi had a lot of feelings. Right now, he felt his cheek swell, his head dizzy, his body aching after falling on the ground…

            "Easy on him, Masaki…"

            "Bastard!! Try thinking about people's feelings!!" yeah, she should try feeling what Jounouchi felt, at least that was what he had thought.

            He got up, slowly. "Look, Masaki, I don't care if you believe it or not, but I just found this place now."

            "Like hell I believe!! You came here directly, you didn't even blink…"

            "AS-I-SAID, I don't care if you believe or not. It's the truth."

            Some birds and a flap of wings could be heard. Crickets chirped. 

            They managed to close their mouths. 

            "Jo… Jo… Jo…" Honda choked, trying to get his voice to work. 

            "…why are you so serious all of a sudden?…" asked Anzu, her voice a mix of shock and hurt. It was completely unlike Jounouchi to be so sharp, so direct, so… mature. Jounouchi sighed, running his fingers through his hair.

            "Well, it must be because I'm trying to say something important, even though none of you will take me seriously. And apart from that you're not even letting me talk, did you expect me to be running around wailing '_yay, yay, so fun, they won't let me say anything!!_'? " he didn't let the silence go on. "And I'm gonna spit it as you asked me, BUT – only if you promise me you're gonna listen until the end and laugh _later_. Got it?"

            Anzu sighed and nodded, but Honda just looked at him, with a dubious face. "You don't mean you're going to say some really, really ridiculous thing that nobody in his or her right mind would ever believe, do you?"

            Jounouchi glared at him, inhaling deeply, his mouth forming a straight line – and nodded forcefully. "Yes, I_ do_!"

            *_My, what a brave lad!_*

            For a heartbeat, all of them were frozen to the core.

            As one, they turned to the cherry tree.

            Floating just under the branches, all of them could swear seeing a flickering silhouette… 

            Time stopped.

~*~*~*~*~*~

Can you actually believe I finished this chapter? I was on a big block, so I decided to sit here and take a look at the fic to see what more to do, then a big idea hit me (it still hurts) and I managed to finish this. Only five pages, though. Pity, but oh well, I arrived at the end of the chapter sooner than I thought… do you like the cliffhanger?

Well, today is August 27, 2002. 21 days to write 5 pages?!?! Yay, I can calculate!! (ducks away from the tomatoes) All right, all right, bad joke. This has been a weird month, so forgive me. I've also started another fic, a one-shot that's really nasty to write. I'll post it as soon as I can. 

I'll try to write a bit more of next chapter before posting this one, though; I'm arriving at important parts, and details could screw the plot royally. Not that I'm anywhere near the climax, that's a long way from here, but I'm scattering clues around (I'm eeeeevil… *insert evil laughter*) so you can try and guess what's going on. I doubt you will, at such an early stage. But you can give a shot. That's a Meitantei Conan fan for you ^______^ (try reading Ysabet's fics – she's the best!!) 

I'm also finishing up a ficart for the fic "Chibi for a Day", from Spyder. The fic is… funny. It's smart. It rocks. And it's funny. If you like yaoi you'll find it there, if you don't like… well, you won't even mind, because it's all humorous things. But I kind of hope Seto's love will keep on being platonic, because by now (in the manga) Jounouchi has risked his life and even begged Yuugi to win and save Mai… and right now (in the fic) Mai entered the scene ^____^ will you allow this non-yaoi couple, Spyder? Please please please??

And, before I forget, the song Yuugi heard by the window is "Angel on my shoulders", by Krystal Harris; I know she sang things around with Backstreet Annoying Boys, but she's ok with me. I like that song, it's very sad. I like sad songs, it seems… is it just me or I'm putting a lot of songs in my fics? TGLoA, now this… well, I like songs. Until next chappie!

Elan-chan

P.S.: Does anybody have the lyrics to Krystal's songs? I can't find them anywhere… ;______; 


	4. Hard as steel

Eye Gate Deep 04

"Hard as Steel"

By Elanor Pam 

            Eh, began this at August 27, 2002, same day I finished chapter 3. You see, I need to sleep, so I'll write just some lines so I won't lose track of the plot… 

            August 30, 2002: Who is the one that put me in his/her fave author's list? I wanna know!! I wannawannawanna… You seen, I haven't even chosen a good part of mine, I must have put some 6 or 7… the ones I could remember at the moment… and I've received great reviews!! You guys are making me proud of myself!! I'll put super effort in this fic. That can mean slower pace, but I'll make it worth the time!! 

            And I'm thinking about building a whole A/U, organized with chained fics, like I've seen with some DBZ fics (or the Souls & Swords YGO A/U, from SoulBound). Just imagine it… I just have to think of a name to call it, since "Yu-Gi-Oh Alternate Universe" doesn't really strike me as the perfect title…

            Disclaimer: YES, I OWN!! I OWN YU-GI-OH MANGA FRENCH VERSION VOL 6!! HYAHAHAHAHA!! I'M EVIL, EVIL, BEWARE!!

*_yada yada_* – ghost talking inside people's heads (a.k.a. telepathy)

_'yada yada'_ – thoughts

~*~*~*~*~*~

            The silhouette flickered, like a badly syntonized TV, it's face showing a little smile; then it disappeared. 

            The teens' feet were glued to the ground. 

            It was a while till they could feel something other than coldness, Anzu being the first one to actually manage a reaction. "Did you… did you see that…?" she choked, breathless. Her whole body trembled.

            "Y-y-ye-e-ess…" stuttered Honda, sweat dripping through his face as if he had caught a sudden fever. He managed to lift a shaking hand to wipe his face, and he still couldn't catch his breath.

            They both saw a white and golden blur fall, from the corner of their eyes. Anzu quickly turned, trying to move her weak legs; Honda already knew what was it, though.

            Just as he though, Jounouchi was on the grass, eyes hazy and wide open, lips white as the death. And he wasn't breathing.

            "JOUNOUCHI!!" Anzu knelt on the grass and shouted, shaking him. "SNAP OUT OF IT, WAKE UP!!" 

            "…that…"

            Both teens held their breaths, listening intently to what he had to say.

            "…I saw… like that…" he suddenly started coughing, and Anzu helped him sit. He breathed hard. "I saw… something… like that… on Monday… that's what I was going to say."

            Anzu and Honda sat on the ground, in front of Jounouchi, without another word; they were ready to listen. The boy smiled inwardly, although he was still shaken; if that… thing… hadn't shown up, he wouldn't be taken seriously like that.

            "That moment, after class, when Yuugi started falling… I saw something hovering above him… like that thing we all saw just now. It was for less than a second… but it was there, and I saw it clearly. That had been bugging me since then… because it seemed I was the only one to see it, so I wasn't sure if it was real or if I was hallucinating something…"

            He sighed, and glanced at Honda. "Honda, you know… the place Yuugi was standing when… it was the place where that guy had…"

            Honda looked at him, clueless, for a moment, and suddenly his face lighted with understanding – just as much as it darkened with something that could almost be described as fear.

            Fear and understanding. 

            They turned to Anzu, that was, indeed, clueless. 

            "Hey, Masaki…" began Honda, his face paling, his eyes looking around at each shadow. "You know about that robber that was disguised as school cleaner, and… and would beat students up, don't you?"

            She nodded, wondering what it had to do with the present issue.

            "And you… you know that he was the one who beat Yuugi up, don't you?" the dark-haired boy continued. 

            She nodded again, feeling that they were arriving somewhere she didn't knew. 

            "You also know" Jounouchi began "that he used to hang around the 3rd floor, and beat up anyone that happened to cross the corridor to the classrooms, don't you?"

            Anzu nodded once more. 

            "A-and you know" Honda wouldn't stop looking around discretely, shaking "that a student taped him once… and that was how he was sent to prison, don't you?"

            The girl knew that, of course. The whole school knew the story till that point – but she didn't nod. Her lips slowly parted, while she stared at the two boys, openmouthed; and she blinked, once, twice… 

            Honda looked around openly, completely paranoid; Jounouchi only smiled stiffly, his lips still pale. 

            _'…no… way. No-way. NO WAY.'_

            Her mind could only scream that. 

            "The guy's gang is still on the run" explained Jounouchi "and if they know we…" he paused, since Anzu knew it already "…they will…" he pointed to his neck and made a cutting motion. 

            She nodded, slowly. This time she did have something to say – she just couldn't find her voice.

            "B-but, Jou…" Honda began, frightened "what does it have to do with now?"

            "Yeah…" Anzu had to try twice to make a sound.

            Jounouchi smiled – he had arrived at the big part. "You know, Anzu, the place where Yuugi almost fell on Monday was the same place he was beaten up… Honda and I had noticed that. But, yesterday, after class, when we were at the corridor, I noticed something at that same point…"

            They looked at him intently.

            "On a certain tile… there's still blood. Blood _lines_."

~~*~~*~~

            She smiled inwardly at the looks she received; but outside, her face was innocent and angelic, as if she wasn't aware that she was walking around with a dirty apron, slippers and old clothes, black hair on a topknot. Some people just thought she was an absent-minded young woman that went for a stroll after making lunch; others thought she was a country girl or something… 

            That was her fun, in fact; walking around noticed and, at the same time, unnoticed. She wasn't a normal woman in many ways… she looked around, her face really looking like that of a curious country girl; far ahead, she recognized the roof of her main worries's house. 

            The Kame Game Shop, some three or four blocks away. 

            No, she wouldn't go there. She knew the old man well enough to know he'd see through her easily. On the other side, she was worried… she couldn't help… 

            She had sworn to herself she wouldn't get attached to the child. Damn, on _that_, she had failed miserably. And she hated failing. Since she was a kid, she'd put extra effort on anything to prevent failure… didn't she put extra effort to keep her distance from him, to drive him away? Even if it brought problems to him later on? But, little by little, his magic had charmed her; some time ago she decided to give it a chance – but still kept her distance, because she had noticed it.

            He knew.

            He knew about her… the little secret hidden from him. He should be the last one in the whole world to know… so why, why, why… 

            She just couldn't bear it. Not the fact that he knew, and still kept it to himself. Or the fact that he never faced her about it. 

            She couldn't bear the fact that he had forgiven her.

            He knew he had been deceived and wronged in every possible way; he knew he had been misled his whole life; but still… still… he had the _nerve_ to go and forgive her, without a single question, without even _tears_!!! 

            That was when she decided to give up and recognize her failure.

            She was very good at acting. So she just acted as if she _hadn't _noticed it. Kept on going as if he was nothing to her, a perfect stranger. He was fooled, believed she didn't know, and she was sure of that; a life of analyzing people's reactions had taught her to read the child as if he were a book. They kept on their lives as if they knew no secrets about each other – and the old man looked at him and believed… 

            But she had long fallen victim of the boy's charm, without him noticing; and he'd never notice. That was her very last work – after that, she'd have nothing more to worry about, not even him. 

            Oh, how she wished, how she wished he knew just how much he looked like his mother…

            …and like that… that… she stopped. She didn't want to spoil her good memories. 

            His mother… his mother as she had known her had been an angel, the sweetest creature on the world; always so forgiving, so calm, so… so much like he was. She always smiled and kept on, always so frail and, at the same time, so strong… always smiling, even when she should be crying… just like him. Always hiding her pain and worries… just like him!!

            On the beginning she had thought she hated him for that, but, after some time, she understood that, whatever was it that she felt, it wasn't hate. She was just afraid of the pain she felt… because she missed her. It had been a long time since the two had looked at each other… since they hugged each other… and there were two possibilities: that they'd do so again soon or never would, till the end of the times. 

            She wished they'd meet again; she had a lot to talk about. But maybe… maybe she had done something wrong, and the worst would come to be… but, whatever happened after her work, he'd be ok. He would be neither harmed, nor involved… she was risking her life for that opportunity and wouldn't let it go. 

            She smiled a bit, still keeping her innocent look. The old man was completely ignorant of what she had been doing all those years. Of course, he was smart – but she was smarter. She knew exactly what she was doing… if the old man knew, he'd never forgive her… because she was going to do something _very_ reckless…

            Hadn't he done so? Hadn't he given the child the Pyramid of Thousand Years? Of course the old man had some hopes and expectations around the thing, but he knew nothing about its true possibilities. She didn't know either, but she had researched on it. 

            Yeah, the "hopes" and "expectations" had been confirmed. That was when she decided to do that. 

            She loved the child as much as she loved his mother. And, with him safe (and unable to know her actions), she wasn't afraid of doing anything. _Anything at all_.

            She looked to the sky, where the clouds were starting to open, pale blue sky showing itself shyly behind them. _'I'll put extra effort on this work, and I **WON'T ADMIT FAILURE**!'_

            All of a sudden, she swiftly hid behind a post, disappearing from people's eyes in a blink. She could stay completely unnoticeable when she wanted…

            Three of the other teenagers she had been spying on these months were walking right by the post, looking ahead. She was shocked when she noticed their expressions – they were so serious… 

            *_They have a mission, dear sister…_*

            _'This voice… this voice…'_

            She turned around, feeling her heart in her throat. Behind her, a feminine ghost floated, invisible to the passersby; the woman's mouth opened slightly, her hands trembling. 

            _'You… you…'_

            *_How about stopping overprotecting the boy? He's a lot more than you'd be able to bit.*_

            She blinked, holding back a shiver. _'What do you mean? Why would he be? He's… he's just a helpless boy! You can't…'_

            *_He's smarter than you think; don't underestimate him. He can be stubborn and dangerous… just as much as his mother…_* the feminine ghost seemed to smile naughtily.

            The woman didn't know what to think.

            *_He can be a nuisance to your plan, dear. Don't doubt he's going to appear and "give a hand". You know him… he's such a good boy. So, you'd better count on his presence, right?_*

            The woman was completely taken aback. If she knew her sister well, and she was sure she knew, than that meant… her eyes seemed glassy as she looked up to her sister, utterly shocked, and forgot to talk in her mind for a while. "So… so… you want…"

            *_Oh, sweet smart sister… so you've noticed! Of course, if you have your plans, I've got plans of my own!_* the silhouette blinked at her, sweetly. *_And Yuugi-chan is a key piece of this puzzle I'm piecing… you'd better help me with it… because I want him in a single and unscathed piece. Got it?_*

            "You… you can't be thinking I'd…" she answered, trembling, but stopped herself. No, she couldn't, she couldn't deny anything to her sister. She couldn't… but what about Yuugi? Why Yuugi? Her sister couldn't be planning such a thing unless… no, that was impossible.

            She made a decision. "Ok, fine! You won!"

            The silhouette disappeared without another word, leaving her panting, leaning against the post. _'Oh, gods… oh gods… how can I… how will I… what are you doing, sister, can't you understand he could…'_

            Again, she stopped herself. _'Unless I'm right… unless it's not impossible! In this case, 1/3 of my plans would've been useless… but still, if she's wrong… anyway, I still have my reasons to go on! And I have to keep an eye at him… it's the least I can do if I have to go on with sis' plans!'_

            She looked again to the three teenagers, to see they were walking towards her main worries's house.

            She just couldn't help it. Couldn't help a big, big grin. 

            _'Placing your pieces already, are you, my dear sister? I'll do whatever you want… when I know exactly what's going into that cute head of yours!'_

            She turned to go to her temporary house. Some research, some rituals to call for magic… argh, it sucked to be a beginner at that. 

~~*~~*~~

            The grass was a healthy, strong green; it waved against the wind, his bare feet caressed softly by the leaves. The sun was shining brightly, and the sky was a wonderful, deep blue; clouds floated lazily, carried by the winds that shook the grass leaves and the tree branches. His light clothes flapped against the wind, white from head to toes; the whiteness of the silky material covering his tanned skin just added to the purity and cleanliness of the scenario. There was just a small thing that seemed out of place… better saying, four not so small things. 

            Three pyramids stood up, pointing defiantly to the sun above; and the sun, amused and, yet, amazed by their stubbornness, was happily adding to their fierce beauty, sending its rays to shine against their white marble walls. It was an amazing sight. 

            And the fourth out-of-place "thing"… it was standing tall, directly ahead of him. The Sphinx. Looking ahead with its might eyes, sitting on the grass as if it was a cat on a cushion. It was completely new, polished… Gods, it looked _alive_! Er, how many gods were there? He wasn't that religious to call on gods…

            And what called most of his attention was that it still had a nose. Well, it looked almost newly built, why wouldn't the nose be there, ne? It definitely looked better with it. Looked right. 

            He breathed in the sweet, green scent of the air, wondering vaguely what the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza were doing in such a… green place. For all he knew, Egypt was a big hot sandbox. Well, that was a dream; nobody was asking it to make sense or to be geographically accurate. In fact, the scenario - Sphinx, Pyramids and all the green – didn't look half bad. 

            Better saying, it was very nice. 

            Or else, it was _beautiful_. 

            He always thought the Pyramids were made of a pile of naked stones a bit worn by the wind. They looked very beautiful covered in marble, completely smooth, nothing like the stairs they were in real life. 

            Well, real life looks very wrong indeed. He liked the place.

            He inhaled deeply again, smiling brightly, and started running on the grass, enjoying that fantasy freedom. There was no place like that in real life – unless he called the _Lord of the Rings_'s "Shire" movie sets as such, and he doubted he'd ever take a step there –, so he'd better enjoy. It was fun. Felt almost real. 

            Then he felt a shadow above him, and his foot stepped in a cooler place. Blinking, he looked up. 

            He had run directly towards the Sphinx, without even noticing. It cast a shadow on the ground, making the grass look a dark shade of bluish green. It was fresh there, but, for some reason, he felt a bit uncomfortable. As if he shouldn't be _so_ near it. 

            He heard a crack. "Wha…" 

            A small stone fell near him. 

            He looked up to see more of it falling – falling from the Sphinx's face, shoulders, as if a layer of skin was detaching itself from its— oh, _Gods_…

            The Sphinx's mighty head shook, as it shoved the rest of the stone layer away, the small pieces falling on the ground around him; he could only stare, openmouthed, as it proceeded to stand up, breaking the layer covering the rest of its body. It finally got free, standing up in its complete glory; it took two steps backwards, and then, to his complete surprise, it crouched down to his level. 

            "YOU SEEK FOR IT. YOU DRINK FROM IT. BUT, STILL, YOU HIDE FROM IT."

            "Uh… uh… what?…" his thoughts were a bit scrambled; comprehensible, since he wasn't very used to see giant stone statues gaining life. "Er… what is it? Is this a riddle?"

            "IT'S THE TRUTH…" said it, gravely. "YOU SHOULDN'T RUN FROM THE TRUTH. YOU SHOULDN'T HIDE FROM THE TRUTH. BECAUSE IT'LL KEEP ON BEING TRUTH, WHATEVER YOU DO… WHEREVER YOU HIDE… IT'LL CHASE YOU FOREVER…"

            "W, why are you telling me this?" he stepped backwards, confused and afraid. "I, I don't think I run from the truth… it would catch up on me, as everything does, even turtles…"

            "REMEMBER… THE TRUTH CAN'T BE HIDDEN FOR LONG…"

            "A-are you… are you… is this about what I'm thinking…?"

            The Sphinx's eyes were harder than steel. "YOU DARE TO THINK I WOULD TROUBLE MYSELF TO COME TO YOU FOR SUCH A REASON?"

            "N-n-no… of course not… hehe…" he sweat dropped. "Er… then… so why are you here?"

            It stood up, towering above his small, scared form; it looked down on him with a crushing glare, and the boy felt dread gripping at his heart. Finally yanking his eyes from it, he noticed that the small stones fallen from the statue seemed to be… puzzle pieces?

            The pieces suddenly started hovering, flying to their places on its skin. As they slowly covered it again, the Sphinx finally spoke, proudly.

            "DECIPHER ME, OR I'LL DEVOUR YOU." Suddenly, everything blacked out.

            Yuugi sat on his bed, panting.

            "WAAAAAAH!" Jounouchi fell from his chair on the floor, his hair standing. "Yuugi! Give a guy a warning, geez!"

            "So-sorry…" he panted, allowing himself a small smile. Then he blinked. "What time is it?"

            "3:27 p.m." answered Anzu, calmly sat on another chair. Honda was leaning against the wall beside her. He was at his bed, the sky was still somewhat clouded, there was no Pyramid near, no Sphinx visible and the only green thing his eyes could pick was Jounouchi's infamous jacket.

            He looked at the – now clean – floor, and felt something like an ice block slide down his throat. "Er… was there anything on the floor when you arrived?"

            "Oh, yes" Anzu seemed about to begin a sermon. "There was _a bunch_ of toys littered around, and we decided to clean the mess up a bit before you woke up."

            Honda and Jounouchi's expressions showed they had been forced to decide that.

            "And… was there any… paper?" he asked, fearing the answer.

            "Yes, you left your homework under a pile of toy cars" Honda snickered. 

            "Only that?" Yuugi hoped so.

            "Yeah" Jounouchi finally stood up, dusting off his pants.

            Yuugi sighed, relieved, allowing himself a brighter, more sincere smile this time. "Oh, well… thank you very much. You shouldn't have troubled yourselves with that."

            "I'm the one who should thank you!" Jounouchi grinned, earning some strange looks from the other two. "I didn't know heck about that Industrial Revolution thingy, and you had it all answered!"

            The room filled with laughter, as Sugoroku approached the bedroom's door; the old man stopped mid-way, and couldn't help but shed a tear. That was the first time the house had echoed with such happiness since…

            He hesitated, his hand on the doorknob. He didn't want to interrupt their fun, but he wanted to check up on his grandson…

            The doorknob suddenly turned under his hand, and Anzu's face showed in the opening. "What are you doing there? Spying on us?" She blinked, smiling playfully. "That's naughty, naughty! Bad boy!!"

            She opened the door fully, showing her friends's stupefied faces, as Sugoroku entered, ignoring the fact that he had made no noise; she closed the door, sitting again. 

            They kept on looking at her, stunned. Between them, Yuugi seemed to be the only one that was more amused than amazed, although also mildly impressed; Sugoroku had decided not to think too hard about it.

            "What's with that look?" asked her, annoyed. "I just opened the door for him!"

            "Er, well, how did you know there was someone behind the door, in the first place?" asked Honda, pointing at her faintly, as Jounouchi nodded. 

            Yuugi laughed, in his sweet innocent way. "You'll get used to that in no time, don't worry. Anzu was always like that…"

            "Yes, I know…" Sugoroku sighed, his mustache trembling. The two boys blinked, thinking that too many weird things were happening at the same time. 

            "Oh, Grandpa…" began Yuugi, reaching a hand in his direction to call attention. "Mom called this morning."

            Jounouchi didn't pick it, but Honda caught a disturbed glance between Yuugi and Anzu, as if one of the two was calling for desperate help or reassurance. Anyway, Sugoroku seemed not to notice. "Really? It was about time! Did she say when she's coming back?"

            "No, but… she said she's working on something… and that, if things went right, we'd have nothing to worry for a looooooong time. The rest was only… random chat."

            "…contact phone?" Sugoroku asked, as if he had an idea what was coming next.

            "She said there was none she could give."

            "I thought so…" the old man sighed. He sat on the bed. "Now that you gave me the message, can we get into more important matters? Like, how are you feeling, are you ok, what more happened this morning, why were you sprawled on the bed when I arrived…" 

            Yuugi laughed softly again. "Well, I'm feeling ok, yes I am, only mom called this morning and I don't remember."

            "You don't" Sugoroku looked at the boy as if he could see the wall behind him.

            "Yes, I don't" Yuugi answered, a bit disturbed by the look.

            Sugoroku sighed, his mustache trembling, and put a hand on Yuugi's head. "Sleep a bit more, will you? You surely look way better than the last week, but better safe than sorry."

            "Yes, I think I'll rest more so I can get better earlier" it must have been the innocent way Yuugi said that, but Sugoroku's eyes filled with tears, that he quickly hid. He stood up.

            "Hm… boys… could you help me with some boxes downstairs? You can spend the afternoon here, so, if Yuugi wakes up early you can talk a bit more."

            They agreed, and Anzu stood up, ruffling Yuugi's hair. "Rest for now. We'll be right downstairs."

            Jounouchi and Honda shook Yuugi's hand, with a _very_ serious face, what amused him a little; although he (finally) agreed that, feeling better or not, he should rest, he wished they'd be there. But, if they did, then he'd never sleep, so…

            The boy waved to them, trying not to look sad, and lay down after they closed the door. Suddenly he wondered… were boxes delivered on Sundays?

~~*~~*~~

            "He seems to be getting better," stated Jounouchi, while they walked down the stairs. "Maybe by Wednesday he'll be back to normal life. It looks like staying in bed is really annoying for him…"

            "Yes, since we were little…" Anzu laughed a little, but seemed saddened by some kind of memory. "It has to do with a time when he got really depressed, and couldn't even stand up if his life depended on it. He was six at the time… a little before his seven-year-old birthday." Anzu's face darkened a little, and she looked at the floor. "He was _terribly_ depressed… he'd just lay there, looking at nothing, and, if we insisted on talking to him, he'd just start crying."

            Sugoroku sat on a couch, tiredly, the teens sitting on the sofa. "I remember that time" he said, a layer of tears covering his eyes, the living room's light casting a shaking reflection on them. "For more than a week, he'd eat nothing, drink nothing, and say nothing… his birthday passed and there was no reaction. Then, when I was on the phone canceling a meeting, so I could take care of him…" he breathed deeply "I can't forget that moment…" his voice started getting husky, shaking "…when he appeared, holding the doorframe there" he motioned to the stairs "and looking at me with those eyes… just like his… his…" 

            He stopped himself, wiping his eyes, as if he had touched a painful topic. "Anyway, he was so… weak, frail… and so _thin_, I was afraid he would fall on the floor and break, but… he just looked at me and smiled and said 'You wanted to go on that meeting so much, I'll be sad if you don't go because of me'…"

            The old man sobbed, the three teenagers standing up clumsily to try and comfort him. He kept on. "After that, he got better quickly, and was soon back to school and all, but… something changed in him. As if he had grown up…" he sighed. "I have the feeling that something like that is going to happen soon – that something is happening that is going to change everything we know, all our lives, and there's nothing we can do about it." 

            They kept silence for some seconds. 

            Sugoroku suddenly spoke again. "Then you come and tell me about Yuugi being beaten and weird things and spirits at school, confirming my fears… something involving Yuugi is going to happen, and all we can do for now is wait until we're sure about everything."

            "No way!" Jounouchi's outburst surprised them. "There _is_ something we can do, and Yuugi doesn't even need to know about it. We can go to school and check up on that tile I told you guys about."

            "That one with the blood?" asked Honda, his voice quivering. Anzu shuddered. 

            Jounouchi nodded. "It seemed they were scratched lines, in which the blood was stuck after being wiped; or it or something like that. It was probably Yuugi's blood or mine…" his eyebrow twitched with suppressed anger. "They seemed to form a drawing, but I couldn't see it very well. But the beatings were more than two weeks ago, that blood should be at least dried by now… but it was still red, as if it were _fresh_…"

            They all gulped.

            "Also…" Jounouchi gulped again "When Yuugi's puzzle fell on the floor and such, we forgot one of the pieces, remember? And we found it at Saturday on the same place…" 

            "Yeah, yeah, that was weird," said Honda "But what does it have to do with the issue?"

            "Well…" Jounouchi sighed, and sat on the couch's arm, beside Sugoroku. "I had a weird dream the night before, about finding it. That it was under Yuugi's desk and, when I picked it, everything went black…" he looked at nowhere for a moment, thinking. "And, when I picked it from Honda, I had a strange feeling…"

            "Was that why you shuddered like that?" Honda sat on the couch, beside the old man.

            "Yeah…" Jounouchi was somewhat distant. "And, after that, I looked at the eye on the piece and… and suddenly I saw something like a big eye looking at me. Out of thin air… just like that…" he shuddered again. "I had thought that it was just imagination, like the silhouette and all, but… after seeing that ghost, I'm not sure anymore about what the heck is happening. I'm not…"

            He put his head into his hands, without knowing that was what all of them whished to do that moment. Suddenly, the little boy sleeping upstairs had become a treasure to protect. Why?

            …because something was looming over him… _or was it?_

            They didn't want whatever it was to harm him. Or to get a mile near him, for that matter. Anzu bit her lip, remembering something very, very painful… 

            …something about Yuugi that even Sugoroku didn't know…

            Honda lifted his head, looking intently at them. "Are we going?"

            "To investigate?" asked Jounouchi. "Count on me."

            "I'm going too" declared Anzu. "And nothing you say is going to stop me from going."

            The boys looked at her silently. As if any of them would dare… 

            Sugoroku laughed at them. _'So bold and young…'_ he though, smiling. "I'm going with you boys."

            "_WHAT?!_" they turned to him at once. "Grandpa, that would be dangerous!!"

            "You're old, you shouldn't…"

            "What about Yuugi? Someone should be here…"

            "If the rest of the robbers…?"

            "**ENOUGH!!!**" Sugoroku stood up abruptly, knocking Jounouchi off the arm of the couch. "He is _my_ grandson, _I'm_ the one responsible for him here!!" He motioned angrily, pointing to the floor at each word, making the teens flinch. "And _whatever_, I say **_WHATEVER_** threatens him also concerns me! Nothing, **_NOTHING_** is going to prevent me from doing what is right!!"

            Not even Anzu dared to question him. Speaking about Anzu, she sighed, noticing something…

            "Nice!" said Honda, standing up too, in an attempt to break the uncomfortable silence. "Now that it's all decided, when are we going?"

            "Maybe tomorrow?"

            To say that all of them had jumped out of their skins would be an understatement. The only one who didn't look all that surprised was Anzu…

            As one, they turned towards the stairs, to see Yuugi smiling innocently, as if he hadn't just been listening a secret conversation. Holding the doorframe, looking so weak, frail and thin…

            But something was different. Something in him seemed to be carved in steel, a kind and delicate strength of will that could disintegrate rocks and burst walls; the strength of will that showed in his shining eyes, saying '_wherever you go, you won't go alone_'.

            They just _knew_ they'd never convince him to stay.

~*~*~*~*~*~

            September 9, 2002: Hey, finished quickly, eh? ^___^ I like this chapter. Things are starting to move, finally. And can somebody at least spot the clues? I wanted to write something that would be fun to read twice or more times. You know, after you understand the plot, you could always go back to see what you overlooked. Not even the flashbacks are there for nothing… ^___^ I'll revise the chapter and post it as soon as I can, but I'm happy. Things start to heat up next chapter (Yay!! About time!! At least I hope so!!), so I need to be extra careful… I don't want to rush things up, this has to go smoothly… Please tell me whatever you want!! Even flames are welcome!! But I want a lot of reviews, alottalottalottalotta!! Also thankyathankya for the kind souls that reviewed, and that went to read the new chapter even after I bugged them with emails!!

            And have you noticed how many ghosts are appearing out there? Ghosts are fun. I'd like to see one of them one day. ^____^ Maybe I'd be scared as hell, but I'd be very happy after the shock (or the other way around; who knows my reactions). Do you think things are interesting? Is it too boring? Is my humor sense getting even lamer? Review!! ^___^

Elan-chan

P.S.: If it takes me too much to upload another chapter, be sure I'm studying. Yeah, that's sad. University Entrance Exams are looming, I have to train a lot to face this threat if I want a chance to study Japanese at a University. I need to live a life, as much as I hate the idea. Then, bye for today!! ^___^


	5. Breaking into

**Eye Gate Deep 05**

**"Breaking into"**

**by Elanor Pam**

            September 9, 2002: Began this chappie. Need to study. Well, do that later. Annoying. Listening to Theatre of Tragedy. Great band. Having dubbed Seto Kaiba Syndrome, guess. Oh, well. I'll write a bit and then study.

            (After one hour) Boooooooring. I'm back. Studied a bit of language, literature and biology, but it's so boring… my eyes hurt. I wanna write.

            September 16, 2002: Gosh. I tried to study today, I really tried. But I think I got a cold. My eyes hurt a bit, and I can barely breath by my nose. So, after squinting at the book for an hour and a half, I thought that mitosis and meiosis are better to study when you can actually differentiate a "g" from a "q" and an "e" from a "c". Besides, they (the guys that designed my school's books) had the wonderful idea of printing the Science part of the apostil with bright orange margins. I swear they shine in the dark. Well, I have more than a month till the test comes. The books can wait till my eyes get better. If only this cold feeling in my belly would disappear (a month, a month, a month, a month!! Gosh, anybody help me)…

            **Disclaimer:** Last time I checked, Yu-Gi-Oh belonged to Kazuki Takahashi. But "The Shining Blue Star" is actually my invention – there's no book called that, at least that I know (it's too lame a name) – and, also, the authors called "Yoshitaka" and "Jo-Ka" were created by me. They have their importance, not in this fic, but later on in this Yuugi-verse. ^_____^

~*~*~*~*~*~

            She looked around, panting, and resumed running. Tripping on her royally embroidered Chinese-looking kimono, she held her sleeves and the back of her garbs, to run without getting stuck at anything. 

            She didn't know what she was running from. 

            It looked like a palace; red adorned carpets hung from the walls, that were decorated with carvings and paintings showing scenes she could care less about at that moment. But she was disturbed a little by the fact that the walls were golden; fancy place, that one. 

            Running down a wide corridor, she noticed she was arriving to the outside; there were still illuminating globes here and there, but the place seemed to be getting some sort of bluish light.

            She crossed a gate, and stopped in mid-track, dropping her clothes. 

            In awe, she looked around her. It seemed that place was into a bubble, underwater; she could see fishes swimming around, corals, and all sorts of marine plants lazily floating…

            Suddenly, she noticed the place had some pillars, each one holding a different carving. One of them called her attention. 

            An eye. An Egyptian eye. 

            Well, she had thought she was at some sort of Chinese or Japanese palace. What's with the foreign eye, then? 

            Looking around some more, she noticed that each carving seemed to belong to some other civilization. One of them looked like a Mayan carving, and that other seemed Greek… wasn't that a Northern carving of Thor and his Hammer? 

            At the center was another eye – but a different one. That one was turned vertically, with a lot of arabesques around it. She walked slowly towards it, curious… 

            "DECIPHER ME, OR I'LL DEVOUR YOU."

            She turned, but no one was there. Trembling, she looked at the eye again. 

            The eye blinked.

            Anzu woke up, startled.

~~*~~*~~

            He walked down the stairs, silently, looking at the shucked and darkened walls; that place gave him the creeps. He felt like something was going to jump and pounce at him at any moment. 

            He seemed to be lost at some kind of underground tunnel; his clothes were torn here and there, and a bit dirty, as if he had fought against someone. The place was in shadows, but he could spot a torch ahead. He ran towards it, and picked it from the wall – to see a hidden door open by his side. 

            Something made a noise behind him, and it was enough to make him take a decision; he jumped into the secret passageway just before it closed. Inside, it was way darker, but he felt safer. 

            Something touched his shoulder. "WAAAH!!" 

            He dropped the torch, that extinguished. _'So much for feeling safer…'_

            "Calm down, dude, it's ok, it's me" said a voice. It was faint and faraway, as if the scene was fading, but he could recognize it…

            Suddenly, he felt the floor disappear, and the darkness deepened. It felt like he was floating in the middle of nowhere… _'Wha… what…? Oh, dude…'_

            "H-hey?" asked him, trembling. "Anybody there?" 

            Silence.

            "C'mon, bro, that's not funny. Where are you? Where _am_ I?"

            The answer he received made his blood coil.

            "DECIPHER ME, OR I'LL DEVOUR YOU."

            Suddenly, he fell on a flat surface, clumsily. Feeling the thick layers of dust under his hands – sign of a long neglected place –, he tried to get up. His body hurt, but nothing he couldn't handle. 

            Looking ahead, he recognized the concrete walls of the school. 

            On the tile under his feet, he could see a sprayed eye. 

            Suddenly, he was at a completely different place, with brick walls written with characters he couldn't understand…

            Honda woke up, panting.

~~*~~*~~

            From one of his fingers, he could see a golden, almost invisible thread, going ahead until his eyes lost sight of it, melting with the air. It looked like a hair strand; very, very thin, and it reflected the ambient light like some kind of blade… But it wasn't tied to any of his fingers; somehow, it was attached to his hand in no visible way. 

            He followed it down the corridor, listening to his echoing footsteps; the paintings, hanging from the bluish-white walls, passed by him slowly, the electrical lamps on the ceiling throwing white reflections on the polished dark-metal-blue floor. He was careful of something, but he wasn't sure of what. 

            Suddenly he felt a sense of urgency; something felt wrong. Very wrong. He started running, the paintings passing by him quicker, quicker, becoming mere blurs; then he noticed that the line was going a bit to the side of the corridor. 

            It seemed stuck between the two sides of a large wooden double door. The door had a big eye carved on it, an eye just like the one in Yuugi's puzzle!

            He opened the double door with a kick, but, for some reason, couldn't see what was behind it. It wasn't darkness; it had a strange, hazy mist, as if, behind that door, there was no certainty… 

            He tried walking into the mist, but saw himself at the beginning of the corridor, the thread pointing to the same place. 

            _'What… but… how?'_

            "DECIPHER ME, OR I'LL DEVOUR YOU."

            He looked around frantically, but was utterly alone. Shrugging, he tried to forget his crawling skin and racing heart, and try to understand just what the heck was going on.

            Then he felt something. Something a bit heavy hung from his neck, and he hadn't noticed it till then. Puzzled, he opened his jacked to glance at his chest. He only saw his shirt, but, now, could clearly feel something cold being warmed against his skin. 

            Suddenly, a cross-like shape started to emit a golden light from under his shirt. "But what…"

            Jounouchi fell from his bed.

~~*~~*~~

            Yuugi fumbled at his drawer again. He had stayed in bed for the whole day, but couldn't sleep again; he felt completely energized, itching to do anything. 

            He smiled and picked a paper from the drawer. Somehow, the picture was there. He didn't remember putting it away, though. 

            Maybe grandpa had found it?

            No, no. He would have noticed. Grandpa was a very bad actor. Maybe, because of that, he was hard to deceive. 

            And it would be hard, even if he were a pro actor, to act normally after seeing that he had it. 

            Yuugi sighed. He hated hiding things from him, and lying to him, but that was the only way. If his grandpa didn't trust him to get over that, than he had no choice than to wait till the old man felt he was "ready". 

            Well, he couldn't just bent down and mop as if there was no tomorrow, could he? He was no child – at least not mentally… and he considered himself to be strong enough to face any "cruel truth" his grandpa could be hiding about…

            He put the picture away, carefully, and started to organize his school material; after that, he put his beloved puzzle box on the desk, lay down on the bed and tried to sleep. Good word: he tried. After doing nothing for an entire day, he couldn't sleep at all. Excess of energy, he guessed.

            Sighing, he started thinking about the dream he had had earlier that day. A green field, a forest at the background, three Pyramids and a speaking Sphinx. Go figure… his mind was probably playing pranks at him. _'Well, that's not the first time'_, he frowned to himself. 

            His mind replayed some scenes he'd be better off forgetting – a gang, blurred movements, standing at an empty alley… he shuddered. Well, he'd better try to sleep… so easy to say. 

            He eventually fell asleep; but one of the last things that passed through his mind was an Ouija Board, Anzu, his Grandpa and him, and a strange message…

            _YOU HAVE YOURSELF WITH YOU. AND ME TOO._

~~*~~*~~

            "You shouldn't have come."

            "I'm ok."

            "He's right, Yuugi, as incredible as it seems…"

            "_Hey!!_"

            "…you should have stayed home, at least this morning, if you plan on coming later to explore…"

            "And let you guys do it all alone behind my back? I'm not _so_ naïve."

            Yuugi sat on his chair, sighing contently. He was feeling much better that day, really. A bit tired, but fine nonetheless. He remembered finely their decision of exploring the "bloody tile", as Jounouchi nicknamed it. That night, they were going to do something very naughty – break into the school and roam inside it… and to think his grandfather was the most excited with the idea. That old child…

            The three boys looked around. Anzu usually was in class before them… it was strange to walk into class and not see her there. Had something happened?

            Their question was answered that moment, when she opened the classroom door in a hurry, running inside, panting. 

            She sat down. "Hey, guys!…" she wiped some sweat from her face. 

            "Something happened" Yuugi's comment was more of a statement than an actual question; Anzu smiled at him, nodding. 

            "My godmother phoned, and I got carried away talking with her. It seems she had a daughter!!"

            "Your godmother!?" Yuugi stood up, excited. "Your mother's cousin, that nice woman that lives abroad? Oh, so she had married, I never knew that!!"

            "Yes, it was a big surprise for me! She had never told me about it either, but it seems she has been married for quite a time, at least some four years…"

            "Four years? How come? The last time I saw her was last Christmas Eve, and I didn't notice anything… she had no ring, nothing to show she was…"

            Jounouchi and Honda looked at each side of the talk, as if following a ping-pong ball; they felt left out of the topic. But, well, Yuugi and Anzu knew each other since they were two little brats… 

            "Alright, alright, back to your seats!" said the teacher, entering the classroom. Suzuki-sensei was a relatively new teacher, and a very good one; she didn't even mind the mockeries some students made on her glasses, something that raised the opinions about her. She was the Literature/Writing teacher, serious and severe, but not lacking sense of humor off-class; and entered the school with a very good résumé, but, for some reason, didn't seem to like the headmaster that much. 

            The students sat obediently at their respective desks, while Suzuki-sensei wrote a composition theme on the board, something like "Money doesn't bring happiness, but it can help – reflect". The _fwrap_ping sound of paper sheets and notebooks repeated itself all around the, for once, quiet class, as the teenagers caught their pencils and pens to start writing, some of them groaning, but not daring to raise their voices. Suzuki-sensei _was_ severe. 

            Yuugi liked writing; he was fairly proud of his own imagination. Anyway, the theme sounded like something interesting to discuss. Looking at his side, he saw Anzu, her hair dropping by the side of her face. She looked very cute. He blushed, and searched for some other thing to look at. 

            He saw himself looking at Honda, and held a chuckle. The dark-haired boy had a look of utter despair – understandable, since "sucks" would be an understatement regarding his writing skills. He definitely wasn't fit for that. 

            Moving his eyes again, Yuugi came across Jounouchi. Someone that knew him would expect to see the same face Honda had; that's why the class was quite surprised at Suzuki-sensei's first class. Before her, the Lit/Writing teacher was boring as hell, and Jounouchi usually spent the Tuesday and Thursday's classes sleeping. But, apart from grammar and orthography mistakes, the teacher had actually praised his reasoning line, after the first composition was corrected. But, if Jounouchi liked her or not, it was difficult to say; he always seemed languid and quiet at her classes, and only Honda seemed to understand what was his problem. Yuugi would like to know, but, as it seemed to be personal, he didn't ask.

            Yuugi went back to his own work, writing quickly, his pen scratching the paper slightly; he had also been praised by her on the first class, something the other teacher never did. But the other teacher was so conservative and thickheaded that he never really appreciated anybody's work, anyway. Everybody hated him, even Kaiba, the student that never seemed to mind if there was a teacher at the room or not. 

            Yuugi smiled as he went on to the second paragraph. At the beginning of her first class, Suzuki-sensei had given a list of her favorite authors and recommended books, and he was kinda glad he had read most of them; principally "The Shining Blue Star" by Yoshitaka and Jo-Ka's books, although the latter had stopped writing five years before.

            He started another paragraph. Suzuki-sensei had even begun analyzing some of the books in class; as she attested that Jo-Ka's books were flawless, she said that Yoshitaka's _Shining Blue Star_ should have been revised more times – "It still looks like a rough draft, a bit rushed", was what she said. _Shining Blue Star_ had been turned into a movie, and most part of the class had watched it, so the topic produced an interesting discussion. But when Jounouchi moodily agreed that it was "_nothing more than a damn sketch!_", the whole class erupted in laughing, until it became sure that he had actually _read_ the book – something unlike all the beliefs people had about him. The laughter made him shy a bit, and he hadn't said another word about any book since then. 

            (After that, with a weird expression, he confessed to Yuugi he had read it only because it was thin.)

            With a relieved sigh, Yuugi finished the last paragraph, and started reading it from the beginning; he wasn't paying any attention around him at all.

            Suzuki-sensei had been sitting at her desk, looking over other classes' works, as the students wrote their dissertations; she sighed, tiredly, organizing the pile and stacking it at a corner of the teacher's desk. She glanced at the teenagers, seeing that they were doing exactly what they were told to do; then, the sharp eyes behind her glasses looked towards the door – or maybe the corridor behind it… 

            And a pair of big, innocent eyes, just after looking over the finished composition, couldn't help but notice it. 

            The big, kind eyes suddenly seemed glassy, hazy, sleepy…

            …and then sharpened. Sharpened as much as a knife, as a sword; and then it passed, leaving a confused little boy to wonder.

            _'Did I drift off? I feel a bit sleepy… no, I shouldn't sleep. It'll worry Anzu, Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun.'_

            The teacher didn't notice him either. She only had eyes to what she had seen the other day.

~~*~~*~~

            "Crap, I knew that wasn't right, I should have wrote a bit about…"

            The teens tried to shut Honda's whimpering moans out of their brains, as they checked their own works. Suzuki-sensei had corrected the compositions throughout the day and, near the end of the day, she asked some person to take the works to their class. Staying behind for sometime as the other students desperately ran home, they were discussing the results. 

            "Stop complaining already, Honda, you were completely off the topic." Anzu cut the dark-haired boy's whining rant. "You don't even have imagination to make a joke."

            "HA-HA-HA!!" Jounouchi snobbishly shoved his composition in Honda's face. "Look, big baby, even I got a better result than you!" 

            Jounouchi's composition had a big, accusing 45, but, as Honda had a 12, that was _almost_ something to brag about.

            "Hey, Yuugi!" Jounouchi turned to his little friend, that was busy putting his material away. "How was your paper?"

            Yuugi wordlessly handed him the paper sheet, keeping with his task; the infamous composition exhibited a crushing "_92 – Congrats_"! Under it, could be read:

            _Good organization_

            _Well-worked reasoning _

            _Perfect grammar_

            _Good orthography_

            Jounouchi silently regarded it, as Yuugi finished with his backpack and innocently asked "Can I see yours?"

            The blond boy didn't even have courage enough to look at him while he handed his notebook sheet. Yuugi took a good look at the 45. Under the grade, it was written:

            _Very interesting and inventive reasoning line!!_

            _Evil, evil grammar_

            _Your orthography is a nightmare!_

            Yuugi sweat-dropped. "Well, she praised your 'reasoning line' more than mine…"

            Jounouchi sighed. "Yeah, but I got a 45 anyway. It's disheartening…"

            "Disheartening?" Yuugi repeated, looking at Jounouchi's slumped face. "Why, do you plan on writing?"

            "…not exactly…" Jounouchi stood up, picking his composition from Yuugi's hands and starting to put his material away. 

            Yuugi folded his one, tucking it at a pocket. "Maybe being a writer or reporter?" 

            "I don't really have any plan" the blond boy looked at Honda and Anzu's bickering, his face a bit sad. "It's just that, when she said that my ideas were very good, I thought I could be good at something for a change. Well, she praised my ideas, and what? Now I know that ideas can't give you good grades…" he suddenly snorted, chuckling. 

            Yuugi smiled a bit. "Well, there's a way for you to write a 100-worthing composition!"

            "Yeah?" Jounouchi looked at him, amused. "So what's it?"

            "Studying grammar and orthography!!" Yuugi shot him an innocent grin. 

            They started laughing, attracting the attention of the two forgotten teens. 

            "But that would be too much work!!" Jou managed to say, wiping a tear. 

            "Hey, you're waiting for a miracle or what?" Yuugi laughed too, clutching the side of his belly. 

            Anzu stood up, picking her backpack. "How about we get going? Tonight we'll have a lot of work to do." 

            "Yeah" Jounouchi smiled. "C'mon, Honda, stop crying already."

            Honda sniffled a bit, before shoving the composition in a pocket and getting up with the most pitiful face ever made. Mumbling things like "I hate Suzuki-sensei and her crappy compositions", he picked his backpack, and the teens walked out of the door and down the corridor. 

            As they'd been doing for the last two weeks or so, they stopped in front of their special torture point, faces completely serious; this time, though, they looked intently at a specific tile. 

            Jounouchi was right; thin red lines could be hardly seen, almost imagined, but they were there. If a person let his or her eyes wander and focus at nothing, the lines would suddenly jump out and blaze a fiery red-blood color. It was bone-chilling. 

            But, for Yuugi, it was also _fascinatingly horrible_. 

            Something in the back of his mind seemed to try to reach out for it, and at the same time keep him away from it; lost between the two feelings, the boy could only stare, without knowing his eyes were eerily glassy and misty. 

            Anzu quickly noticed something wrong with him, but, before she could call his attention, she noticed…

            "What are you doing here?" a sharp voice called from behind them, making them all freeze; turning, startled, the foursome set their eyes on Suzuki-sensei, a stack of books on her left arm, the other hand at her waist – much to Honda's dismay and Jounouchi's… Jounouchi's what?

            Yuugi couldn't really tell what Jounouchi's face meant, since it was the weirdest expression he had ever seen in the world. Not really noticeable; but Yuugi was quite good at reading other people's faces. He looked a bit disturbed and not that much of surprised, definitely not the expression he'd have if it was, say, Sawamura-sensei instead of Suzuki-sensei. Speaking of her…

            "The classes ended fifteen minutes ago. What have you been doing all by yourselves during this time?" her eyes were _so_ sharp it was scary…

            Yuugi pulled his composition from the pocket in a blink. "Discussing the composition, sensei" he said, looking intently at her with his most innocent look. "We hadn't noticed that all this time passed. We're very sorry…"

            She looked at him straight into the eyes and then smiled kindly. "Well… it's alright. I'm just worried, students that have walked around at the empty school are getting weird."

            "Wha--?!" Jounouchi's squeak took them all by surprise. 

            "Yes" she looked sharply at him, again. "It looks like they lost their minds or something. They don't move by themselves, don't talk by themselves, and their eyes are completely dull; they look almost like zombies…"

            _Now_ Jounouchi was having a normal reaction: he paled like a vanilla ice cream. "Z-z-zo-zo-zomBIES?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?" he said the last syllable with a very high tone, as his voice would usually get whenever he was scared to death. 

            "Yes" she said, once again. "The headmaster was against spreading this through the students, and most teachers agreed, but I believe that only the knowledge can prevent the problems from spreading. That's what schools are for, in the first place." she gave Yuugi's composition back. "Now go home. And, Jounouchi, study a bit more of orthography. It's your worse point."

            The blond teenager sighed, annoyed, and they turned to go, walking down the stairs and talking lightly. Honda's voice could be heard "See, Jounouchi, I'm so bad there's nothing she can advise me to do to get better…"

            Suzuki-sensei kept on looking at the direction they had walked to, her eyes gleaming strangely. Then, she looked at the floor – or maybe at a certain tile…

            At the second floor, the teens bumped on an old friend of theirs. 

            "Oh, you're back!!" Haruno Takasugi left her broom leaning on the wall, and leaned down to look at Yuugi. "Feeling better, dear?"

            Yuugi blinked at her, surprised, and then smiled. "Yes, thanks for worrying so much. It was just an anemia."

            "Ooh, I'm so relieved!" she caressed the boy's hair, much to his embarrassment. "Now, all you need is to take it easy, right? Will you? Please don't be harsh on yourself."

            "I-I won't" Yuugi managed to keep a normal tone, although he, as well as the other three, thought that woman acted in a disturbing way. 

            She smiled sweetly. "Excuse me…" she picked the broom on the wall. "I have to sweep the third floor… good bye for you. Be careful on the way home!" she jumped up the stairs energetically. 

            They looked at each other, silently. She _was_ disturbing… or maybe disturbed. Shrugging, they kept on, although some doubts and hypothesis, as well as certainties, hovered in more than one mind, Jounouchi's being one of them.

            Haruno arrived at the third floor, where Suzuki-sensei still was standing. They looked at each other.

            Maybe some special eyes could witness the battle of will that took place for less than a second. Lightening flickered around, thunders filled the air, and suddenly it was all over. All was normal. 

            Humming to herself, Haruno started sweeping in front of a door, while Suzuki-sensei, yawning, walked down the stairs. Still humming, Haruno entered one of the classrooms, and closed the door. The corridor stayed empty, innocently singing in silence. 

            The headmaster walked up the stairs, and looked at all sides, as if expecting something to jump at him. Munching his cigar nervously, he walked down the corridor, and looked around suspiciously. Not seeing anybody, he sighed in relief; turning, he walked down the stairs again. 

            "So nobody's here" he smiled to himself. "And all teachers were getting so worked up about it…"

            He threw the cigar at a trashcan, lighting another immediately. "It's not like _I_ would let something happen at _my_ school, is it? Of course not. I built this place almost twenty years ago, when the old one burned down… this is my second home. I know every inch of it."

            He blew some smoke, watching it slowly spread through the air and disappear, like some unidentified feeling. 

            Without being noticed, Suzuki-sensei watched him from behind a pillar. The eyes behind the glasses threw daggers at him.

            If looks could kill, the Headmaster would have been a goner months before.

~~*~~*~~

            That afternoon, Jounouchi didn't go to work. His father would never know.

            Anzu would make homework and sleep at Yuugi's house, same with Honda.

            So many ways to deceive innocent, unknowing parents…

            Sugoroku opened some big sheets of paper on the living room's short table, the teens leaning over it to look. They all gasped. 

            "Grandpa" Yuugi was breathless. "This is…"

            "A map of the school" he smiled, proudly. "I've had this for some time, but never thought it would be so useful."

            "But" Anzu looked at him, openmouthed. "How?"

            "Yeah", Honda agreed, "It's not everywhere you can find a complete map of a big school. Look, even the water canalization! And _look_, the air passages!! Gramps, this is… this is…"

            "A life saver!" Jounouchi picked one of them, energetically, making it fly in the air gracious and carefully, guiding it with a hand till it slowly dropped in his lap. "Look, the third floor map. From here, if you look at the window, you can see the clock at the shopping's tower. And here, if you look at this side, you face a chemistry table poster. Neat, uh?"

            There was no answer, as they slowly moved their heads to face him, staring in silence. He blinked at them, till Yuugi finally talked, hesitatingly. 

            "That was… er… random…?"

            "I was just showing I could localize myself in this!!" he yelled, indignant.

            "Of course" Honda sighed. "The clock tower is where you look at when you really, really want to get out of class. And at chemistry tests you always look at that infamous table. No wonder you can localize yourself!"

            The sound of muffled snickers surrounded the small table, as Jounouchi glared at Honda in an annoyed way. "Now can we get this thing going?" he asked, suddenly. 

            "Er…" Sugoroku scratched his head. "Right." He picked the map from Jounouchi's lap and spread it through the table. "I don't know if we can enter the place by the front gate…"

            "We can" said Honda. "At least me and Jounouchi have entered the school grounds at night, a lot of times. But we jumped the gates, the walls, you know."

            Jounouchi looked at them, as if measuring their abilities. "Anzu is agile enough to jump a wall, she has a good physic for that. I can't say about Yuugi, since he's been sick and all, but, even if he couldn't, he's light enough to be carried. The only problem is you, gramps."

            "**_WHAT??!_**" Sugoroku punched the table. "**_I CAN DO IT ON MY OWN, YOU, YOU, YOU…_**"

            "Er… sorry…" Jounouchi lifted his hands to calm him down. _'And I was gonna say nobody here would be able to carry him…'_

            "ANYWAY!" Yuugi's sudden loud voice startled them, and he kept on, after gaining their attention. "Sometimes the gates are kept unlocked at night, when the cleaners have to check up security. They do that at late night every Monday because it's the time where more break-ins happen."

            Now it was his time to blink, as they stared at him in silence. "What?"

            "How… how do you know that?" Sugoroku blinked at his grandson. 

            "I've been at the infirmary a lot of times" he said, naturally ", and they have a warning or something at the wall saying that the whole school was searched every Monday night, and any missing object should be reported or something. And once the doctor was talking about how the cleaners would forget to lock the gates after entering the school, since they were used to doing that every morning…"

            "Yeah, but that depends more on luck" countered Honda. "We've gone to school at very late hours to win bets and never found the gates open, right, Jounouchi?"

            "We never tried opening, anyway" Jounouchi stated, matter-of-factly. 

            Another silence followed that… disturbing… comment, and they silently decided to just forget about it and go on. 

            "Look, there is an easier way" Anzu started. "If Mutou-san can't jump the gates, we jump, get him some stairs from the storehouse inside, and the problem is solved."

            "Yeah, that's a way" said Yuugi, quickly, before his grandfather could start shouting. 

            The boy pulled the first floor map from under the other ones, spreading it on top of the table. "Now, we should start planning what to do to enter the main building. There will be people inside, you know. We can't just open the gates and walk around."

            Suddenly Anzu sputtered and began laughing. They looked at her, oddly. 

            "Whassup, Anzu?" Jounouchi felt her forehead. 

            She pushed his hand away. "It's not that!" she stopped laughing a little. "I was just thinking how it looks; we're here planning an assault over a school as if we were an army planning an assault over a castle…"

            Yuugi smiled, his sweet, innocent, but (for the ones who knew him well) slightly dangerous smile. "Just like an RPG game" he said, softly. "In the end, this is just a game we're playing…"

            Yuugi picked a Tokyo Tower miniature and used it to hold a corner of the map. This time, his large, shining eyes were completely serious.

            "But we still need to know who we're playing against."

            They all nodded and leaned over the map, discussing their plans. 

~~*~~*~~

            Yuugi put his jacket on. '_Time to go – finally!_'

            Picking a shoulder bag, he started putting in it things he thought would come in handy. Scissors, probably… maybe a pencil, an eraser and a sharpener? Well, nobody knows… out of habit, he also put his aerosol deodorant in the bag. Absent-mindedly, he started searching on his desk for anything that could be of use…

            Without even noticing, his hand slipped the puzzle inside it.

            "Yuugi!" his grandfather's voice called. "Ready already?"

            "Yes, I'm coming!" he closed the bag, hanging it on his shoulder and running downstairs.

~*~*~*~*~*~

            Hm… September 22, 2002. Not bad. I could have ended this chapter earlier, but it seemed so wrong to post it when I could write it longer. Anyway, I've got almost a whole page of next chapter ready, and as I write with font Verdana size 8, that's a lot already. 

            As you can see, things are finally moving… the last part is probably a bit badly written, and there is nothing funny in this chapter (at least I didn't find anything…), but real life isn't helping, you know. Well, nothing serious is happening with me (apart from a nasty cold. And I had anemia also, how funny… maybe that's why I'm always so sleepy at physics classes!). And, well, I can say that this chapter has A LOT of allusions to my Yuugi-verse in general (probably things that'll only appear in later, much later fics!). And I inserted Kaiba!! Well, just mentioned his name, but he is indeed in Yuugi's class. Just to put him there. 

            How did you like the little twist? Nobody was expecting a new chara so late in the fic, ne? She'll appear in later fics too, but her role will be a bit… limited. Still, I like her. Suzuki-sensei. No, the problem with Jounouchi isn't *quite* love. You'll know later. But you'll probably be disappointed.

            I'm happy today, mainly because I've finally discovered Megatokyo.com!! Yay! Piro rocks, he's so nice. And Largo is completely nuts. I wonder if there are really zombies in Tokyo or if it's just in his head. It would be nice if there were, you know. ^_____^

            Well, er… now I have another reason to be late with chapters. I've got Diablo II Expansion… ^___^ I'm kinda trying to get the controls, I'm no very used with a game with so many functions. It's so complicated!! Er, well, I've got no topic anymore. Bye, bye… kisses… blahblah… yadayada… 


	6. Shimmer and Clocks

**Eye Gate Deep 06**

**"Shimmer and Clocks"**

**By Elanor Pam**

            Yay, l I've got Warcraft III too ^____^ But that's off the point. I began this chapter at September 22, 2002. Just keeping track, you know.

            September 25, 2002: Had a lil' surgery… nothing big, don't worry ^__^

            **Disclaimer**: Not this again… *moans*

~*~*~*~*~*~

            It was 11:43 pm. 

            Not the best time to walk around, they knew. 

            But Sugoroku, Anzu, Jounouchi, Honda and Yuugi were walking around anyway. At the dark street, all of them looked like silhouettes between the lampposts, brown autumn leaves showering around them. 

            Anzu shot a glance at Yuugi's face, finding sad eyes downcast. Still, she kept quiet. They both knew it was the best thing to do.

            The school clock ticked loudly in the night's silence, as they stopped in front of the main gate. The street was completely dark, and no light post was on. It seemed there was a blackout. 

            Whispers could be clearly heard.

            "Hey, and if it has an alarm or something? Don't, don't, you son of…"

            "Now, stop it, dude, it's okay. Look, it's open. And there's no light, anyway…"

            They opened the gate as silently as they could, slipped past it and closed the gate again. Stealthily (or not, in an old man's case), they crossed the main yard towards the building's door. They found nobody, what made Anzu frown.

            The building's door was opened, sending a ray of twilight into the hall behind it. '_So far, so good_', some of their minds were commenting by then. They crept in, tiptoeing, to hear the sound of wind whispering inside air passages, leaves hitting hard on windows, and a deafening silence… Anzu didn't smile at that apparent victory. It seemed she was the only one to notice there was no sign of life around… but Yuugi had, too.

            He gulped, walking even more quietly and carefully, if that was possible. The small but potent engines inside his brain kept on turning and twisting, while he gathered and piled each of the pieces of this little puzzle he had just faced; question by question popped in his mind like little bubbles, while he took note of them for future references, if more weirdness happened… 

            Suddenly a loud _click_ was heard, and they almost jumped out of their skins when Sugoroku's lantern shot a beam of light on the first set of stairs.

            Something reflected the light, shining from one of the steps of the stairs. For a moment, all legs were heavy like lead, and the first one to recover enough to go there and pick the sparkling object was Anzu. 

            A watch. A very expensive watch. Sparkling new, digital numbers shining, but the screen was cracked. The seconds slipping away, small numbers at the corner of the little screen, increasing more and more… until they reached zero – and the clock reached midnight.

            It started beeping loudly, as if it was an alarm bringing them back to reality; they jumped out of a trance, and Anzu dropped the little machine on the floor, as if it had burnt her. Yuugi picked the clock and started fumbling with it desperately, while they looked at all sides, waiting for someone to jump at them, and Sugoroku quickly turned his lantern off. 

            Yuugi managed to make it stop, and they all sighed with relief. 

            "Maaaan, I thought we were done for" Jounouchi's voice was shaking, while he wiped some sweat. "Strange that nobody came here to look for the watch."

            "Yes, very strange" Anzu wondered.

            "I mean" Jounouchi kept on, without really noticing that nobody was paying attention ", this watch is new, apart from the crack, that probably happened when it fell on the floor; of course the owner must be looking for it like crazy! It's very expensive, I saw the price for one of those just the other day!"

            "Jounouchi-kun" called Yuugi, lifting his head to look at him. All of them turned at his strange tone, and were surprised to find a big smile. "You're so sharp!"

            Honda sputtered, laughing. "Yeah, thanks for stating the obvious!!"

            "I'm serious" the smaller one interrupted, to be once more the center of attention. "This is an expensive and new watch, and nobody would let it drop on the floor like that; also, this place looks completely empty, even after all the noise we made. Didn't you notice this is _all_ wrong?"

            All the males shot him exasperatingly blank looks, but, as that was Yuugi, he didn't get exasperated. Anzu sighed, looked at the smaller boy meaningfully, and started explaining things. 

            "When we arrived, the lights were off on the whole street, the gate and the door were opened, and this watch was on the floor, forgotten. But, if there is no one around, how come the door and the gate are opened? And if there's really someone here, shouldn't the lights be on? It's completely dark. If there's any problem with electricity, shouldn't there had been at least three people checking the power box, outside, when we arrived?"

            She stopped for a moment, to see if they were understanding. They said nothing, but she knew they were. Yuugi was just smiling, admiring her, and it made her somewhat uncomfortable. 

            "Of course, they can have some kind of problem that prevents them from coming downstairs," she kept on "But, still, they'd obviously try to call the repairing service, or at least turn the emergency lights on. Why haven't they done that until now? And also all the questions Jounouchi made about the clock apply. After hearing the alarm, the owner should have come here to retrieve it. But he didn't come, and we can only arrive to a conclusion…" her voice trailed, and she looked at her companions again.

            "Something happened," Yuugi completed it for her. "And we're not going to like it."

            "Oh, God…" Jounouchi put his hand on his eyes, and walked a few steps away, coming back again as if overcoming an impulse. "Ri-ight, wha, what do we do now?" his voice quivered noticeably.

            "Go back home?" Sugoroku's whisper sounded heart-breakingly hopeful.

            Yuugi didn't need to lift his head much to look into his grandfather's eyes, but still, when he did it, Sugoroku's heart squeezed. In the dim light, he had looked just like his mother when she was little… he missed those times.

            "If you all want to, you can go back…" he whispered, smiling sweetly. 

            A silent cheer spread through the group.

            "…but I'm staying here."

            The cheer got out of tune and died, as they looked at him incredulously.

            "You – here – _alone??_" Honda muttered, his eyes seeming to shine in the dark, so wide they were.

            "_NO WAY!!!_" whispered Jounouchi, angrily, making an effort not to shout. "Last time you stepped on that tile you passed out, remember?"

            "Yuugi, _you_ are the one that shouldn't be here, do you think _I_ would leave you here?!?" asked Sugoroku, angrily.

            Anzu breathed, trembling. She was at a loss of words.

            '_Always, you're like this always…_'

            "I can't help," said Yuugi, smiling. "On that place appeared a ghost that scared Jounouchi-kun very much…"

            "Who said he scared me??!" bellowed the blond boy, his knees shaking.

            "You told me that, just a week ago" the boy smiled at him. "You said that you're afraid of weird things that reminded you of ghosts, like silhouettes, leaning over your friends…"

            '_Always remembering… always so kind…_'

            "And," his eyes were shining in the dim light, and he had an expression disturbingly like a person would have when talking about the greatest treasure of a lifetime "Jounouchi-kun is my friend; one of these three friends I could have never expected having, nor deserved having…"

            "_WHAT THE HECK IS THIS CRAP YOU'RE SAYING!!_" Jounouchi had to be held by Honda, but his voice was heavy and hoarse; it wasn't really a surprise when he wiped a tear from his eye, pulling his arm away from Honda fiercely.

            Yuugi noticed it; he blinked once, and smiled again. It was amazing how many feelings he could express in a single smile…

            '_Always so caring and compassionate…_'

            "I can't let these ghosts make my friends worry about me, you know…"

            Anzu wiped her eyes, as she had been doing for the last minute, and leaned down to his face. "But it's so late, don't you think? It's past midnight, we should go sleep. Tomorrow we have school…"

            "It's not midnight yet" said him, showing her his own clock. It said **23:54.****44**.

            "But" Honda stammered, and gulped the knot in his throat, "that clock is new. It can't be already malfunctioning… unless it was because it fell and…"

            "Maybe" Yuugi shrugged. "Or it was set up to be ten minutes beyond. I usually do that with my alarm clock. Helps me get up on time…" he smiled sheepishly. 

            "Why would someone do that with a wrist-watch?" asked Jounouchi, suddenly. "If it was an alarm clock, it'd be understandable, but a wrist-watch? And set it to play on midnight of all hours?"

            Their chat was brusquely cut short.

            "**_KYAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!_**"

            They jumped, startled. The shout seemed to have come from upstairs… 

            They looked at each other for a second – just a second –, wide eyed, and no words were needed.

            They all ran up the set of stairs, panting; there was nobody on the first floor. Kicking each other's heels, they scrambled to the next staircase, finding nothing at the second floor either.

            Yuugi blinked. Was it just him or could some kind of humming be heard?

            They started running up to the third floor, while Yuugi asked himself just what the heck was happening – but, whatever they were imagining, definitely wasn't that…

            About ten people were fallen on the floor along the corridor, out cold. Haruno, her long black hair disheveled, a ribbon fallen on a shoulder, long skirt slightly torn, held an arm in front of her scared face, protectively. The headmaster was standing in the middle of the corridor, his face showing surprise and annoyance. In front of him, and with her back turned to the amateur detectives, was Suzuki-sensei. 

            She was pointing a gun to the headmaster's face.

            "You, that just arrived, stay where you are!" she shouted, without turning to them. "I'm sure none of you want a bullet in the face." they heard her chuckle. "I'm sorry I can't turn to greet you like a polite person should, but I can't let this son of a bitch slip past me, you know. He isn't very trustworthy."

            All of them were wide-eyed. Haruno looked to the headmaster, to the teacher, and to the group, and back to the teacher. 

            Nobody noticed the little smile on her lips.

            "Su-Su-Suzuki-sensei…" Jounouchi tried to say anything. "Why… why… why are you pointing a gun at the Principal's face?"

            For a moment, she said nothing. Then, she slowly turned to them, wide-eyed. 

            "K-Katsuya-kun?" she blinked, incredulous. "Yuugi-kun, too, and Hiro…" 

            She was pulled roughly, her gun taken from her hand; the headmaster pointed it at her face, holding her by the neck. He laughed, in a way no student, regardless of how much he or she hated him, would ever be able to imagine. 

            "So, if it isn't the pair of party-poopers, Hiroto Honda and Katsuya Jounouchi," he said dryly, regarding the wide-eyed group with contempt. "My plan was working wonderfully, but then you had the damned idea of taping my spy when he was being… overprotective, I can say. I didn't really think he was the one who was beating students up; my only way out was to send him to the bars, using your tapes as proof."

            He stepped back, still gripping the teacher, that seemed to be suffocating. "Today was an important day… I have been waiting for it for the last twenty years – but then you two come and spoil everything again, good riddance. And brought reinforcements, to top it off… well, I have reinforcements too, don't I, Miss Takasugi?"

            The woman in question blinked some times, looked at the disbelieving faces of the newly arrived group and laughed sheepishly, showing the tip of her tongue as if she was a child caught playing a prank.

            "Y, you…" Yuugi walked a step, his eyes showing hurt. "But, but…"

            "Well, that's true…" she looked to the side, shyly, as if there wasn't a woman being choked just there. "He hired me to take care of the gate, since it was work for someone with brains and not brawn…" she smiled, disconcertingly like Yuugi's innocent smile. "Also, I'll be the translator, you know. He'll need one…"

            Suzuki managed to lessen the grip in her neck. "Everybody… _RUN AWAY!! THEY'RE RESPONSIBLE FOR EVERYTHING THAT HAS BEEN HAPPENING IN THIS LAST M--_"

            Yuugi's digital watch bipped midnight. 

            "Wha—" the headmaster opened his mouth, but it was too late. 

            The tile shot a light to the ceiling, and an eye could be clearly seen on the beam. Each of the tiles started shining, quickly, until the whole third floor was engulfed by golden light, and all the present people seemed to be swallowed by it…

~~*~~*~~

            A brown-haired woman woke up suddenly. She was in a plane cabin, the sky outside spattered with blinking stars.

            A man by her side woke up too, at the same time. He looked at his companion, a questioning look.

            "A strange dream…" she muttered, apologetically. "It seemed very real."

            An air stewardess approached them. "Should I bring you something?" she asked her.

            "No, thanks" the woman dismissed her with a wave of her hand.

            The man looked at her seriously, as if no words were needed. She nodded, and he nodded also. He kissed her forehead, and the two went back to sleep. 

~~*~~*~~

            It's not everyday that you get to be standing on shining tiles. So, the general reaction of the small crowd was understandable… 

            All of them jumped some 80 centimeters high. 

            "What…!!" Sugoroku held Yuugi, that had lost equilibrium with the surprise. The boy's backpack opened, spilling a bunch of objects around… including an open box with a lot of golden pieces scattering around…

            "_My puzzle_!!" he shouted, bending down to pick them up. The other teens bowed down to help him, putting his objects inside his bag, while Yuugi held the puzzle box where they dropped the pieces. While they were at that, Sugoroku looked at the nearby battle. 

            Suzuki-sensei had managed to kick the Headmaster's leg, making him fall on the floor, face-first. Haruno only looked, eyes wide and scared. Suzuki reached out for the gun – only to have it kicked by the principal. They scrambled to get to it, the principal stepping on Suzuki's leg – she took out her shoe – he jumped to the gun – she tossed it against the gun, that slid towards the busy teens…

            "Careful, you!!" She shouted, but it was too late…

            Someone grabbed Haruno's arm. 

            Sugoroku pulled her to face him, with surprising strength for a man of his age. She pulled her arm free from his grip and backed to the wall, her eyes hazy and wide, mouth open. She was _definitely_ scared of the old man. Not the sweet innocent fear of before; this time, it was _serious_ fear. 

            She was sweating a little, her incredibly smooth face showing no paleness, though. Still, her red-brown eyes showed what her face wouldn't – panic. In them, it could be almost read "_Why him of all people, why him of all people…_"

            He looked into her eyes, pitilessly, red-brown into red-brown. 

            "Tell me what do you have to do with all this," his voice was menacing.

            She trembled. He looked at her intently… 

            His eyes widened. "You… you are…"

            A hand grabbed the gun, pointing it to the headmaster's face. 

            "Not so fast, uncle" Honda smiled smugly. 

            The golden light around them faded.

            All eyes widened. 

~~*~~*~~

            Someone smiled. Long, flowing wavy hair flied as it flew; it was sure that some other person was following everything as well. 

            It frowned. 

            '_If only he would stop grieving… but I guess he will be happier soon enough, at least if he doesn't get happy today. A lot of surprises are in store for the underground world…_'

            It smiled again, naughtily as a child preparing a prank.

~~*~~*~~

            On the wall, visible to everybody, was an enormous carved eye. 

            "Wha… what?" the headmaster gaped, forgetting the gun. 

            "The eye of Horus…" marveled Sugoroku, while Haruno, by his side, smiled in wonder, looking at it as if her dream had come true. 

            Yuugi looked at the carved wall, holding his breath. 

            That eye – drawn in his notebook, long, long ago…

            That eye – in his grandfather's books…

            That eye – in some long forgotten dreams…

            That eye – burnt on the face of the leader of that gang…

            What he felt wasn't fear, panic or terror; he felt like he was naked, his very core open to the world, as if that eye could look inside his soul…

            "Look, Yuugi!" Jounouchi's voice snapped him back to reality. "It's just like the eye in this piece!"

            They all turned to see him pick the piece from the floor. It was the last piece – all of the others were inside the box between Yuugi's hands. 

            The floor disappeared under them, as if a trap door had been opened.

~~*~~*~~

            Anzu blinked, baffled. 

            In one moment, she was at school; a second later, in a completely _dark_ corridor. What was it that was so strange in corridors?? Why should they all be so creepy? She could barely see the walls in the dim light that came from wherever.

            "Y… Yuugi…?" she didn't dare raising her voice. "Are you okay?

            Only echoes answered her. She grew even more nervous.

            "Yuugi, are you there? Yuugi? Yuugi! Yuugi, where are you? **_YUUGI!!! JOUNOUCHI!! HONDA!! MUTOU-SAN!!_**"

            She turned to all sides, desperately, shouting, all carefulness forgotten. Seeing nothing but stonewalls, she started running down the corridor, away from the weak light. Tripping at unseen cracks on the floor, she reached out to her side, feeling the wall brush at her fingers. Her desperate footsteps echoed, sounding like drums, and she could feel cracks rush past her fingers on the wall…

            Suddenly she heard a sickening _thud_, and felt herself being thrown back. She tried getting up, but her head hut so much she was seeing stars.

            After some minutes sprawled on the floor, she came to a conclusion. She had hit a wall headfirst. 

            Then, she slipped into nothingness. 

~~*~~*~~

            Jounouchi looked around wildly. He was… somewhere with stone walls, the floor shone faintly around him, he could see something creepy some meters ahead and feel the wind blow behind him. 

            His knees suddenly turned into jelly, bonking against the floor. 

            He had no idea how long he had been standing, frozen.

            Cold fingers started to grip and tear inside his mind, the darkness swirling and drowning him… 

            He tried to be rational, to think…

            '_Gi-gi-gi-gi-gi-gi-gi-gi-gi-gi…_' 

            Bad time to get a malfunctioning brain.

            Unconsciously, his hands gripped his hair, his eyes widening in terror… 

            He tried to get a grip on himself, crawling on the floor to a wall and leaning against it. His entire body quivered, his jaw was shaking, and he felt himself drown more and more in the cold…

            "C-cold" he whispered, as a small plead for help.

            Tears escaped from his eyes, while he pulled his blond hair…

            He was in panic. Sheer, irrational panic.

            "C-cold…"

            Something fell from his hand, bouncing on the floor, shimmering lightly. He looked towards the light, desperate to see something…

            Yuugi's puzzle piece. 

            And, at least for Jounouchi's troubled mind, the eye seemed to look understandingly at him.

            He picked it between his hands, letting some odd relief wash over him.

~~*~~*~~

            Honda blinked as he saw a flickering light, not very far from where he was. 

            He had seen himself in the middle of a corridor, some faint light coming from the floor under his feet (just like all the others); he should have panicked or something, but, after all he had seen until then, he decided not to think too hard about it, and rather think of a way to find everybody. 

            For lack of a better idea, he took a shoe, spun it around and started walking towards the direction it had pointed to. Now, he could finally see light… he started running. 

            Suddenly, the light went off, as if someone had hurriedly put it off. And, to make things stranger, he saw another light – weaker – start shining, much farther down the tunnel. 

            Swearing a bit, he started running towards it.      

~~*~~*~~

            Sugoroku looked around, marveled. He pointed the very useful flashlight at another point in the wall, seeing another crack. The walls were completely made of stone, naked stone, shining brown under the light; here and there, there were torches blackened, as if they had burned down, or a small crack, as if the place had barely felt the very common earthquakes that annoyed Domino (and the whole Japan) now and then. 

            So, there was an underground passage, with an opening at the school… interesting. And she knew it too. That little rascal… 

            Now that he knew about it, he thought he could understand some things. Frowning, he started to piece each of the clues, and, as an image formed into his head, his eyes widened and widened…

            So, it certainly had something to do with, with…

            …with that _true_ rascal. No, it couldn't… it couldn't be true… he had left her forever…

            But still, it had to do with the Underground, he was sure of it. And the Underground was somewhat related to _him_, wasn't it? Although it wouldn't necessarily involve _him_…

            Suddenly, the beam of light stopped on an Egyptian Eye, carved on the wall, in front of him, that turned into a corner. The flashlight dropped on the floor.

            "Horus' eye… sure!!" Sugoroku breathed out, eyes completely wide. Of course! Why didn't he notice it earlier?

            '_So it's about… so she plans on… or maybe she knows something I don't… then…_'

            Trembling, he picked the flashlight back, quickening his pace. 

            '_Where's Yuugi in all this? He's directly related to everything… although he has no idea of it._' He bit his lip, worried.'_He's holding the Puzzle… if only he had solved it, I'd be much less worried! But that's not in his control, even if he has the capacity to solve much harder puzzles… since that Puzzle requires something else, besides capacity. It requires…_'

~~*~~*~~

            "…our souls…"

            Haruno looked at the notepad she held, and back at the hieroglyphs on the tablet. 

            It sure was hard to find anything worth looking inside those damned tunnels, since there were only some eyes here and there, and it started to get annoying. But suddenly she ran into a tablet fallen on the floor. It was a bit cracked, but in good conditions, and now she was just translating what she could make out with the faint little fire she had managed to flare a torch with. 

            It seemed to have been hung on the wall, but probably some earthquake had dropped it. Although some pieces were scattered, the most important part – the writing itself – was in a single piece, intact. 

            "Hm-hm, hm-hm…" she muttered to herself, as she kept on taking notes. That tablet was, to put it mildly, interesting. 

            Very, very interesting.

**_            On the Time before Time, when magic was raw and free, a soul was torn and sealed as a sacrifice… sacrifice that sealed magic under the wings of a powerful will; now, one need to have at least a speck of that great will, if this one wants to touch the surface of this ocean there is inside each of us. _**

**_            In this tablet is engraved the prophecy that was made by The One back then: "The universe is Infinite because it's one and not two; someday, all souls shall be infinite. That is going to be when magic shall be open to all the hearts that wish to reach it."_**

**_            And with sad words all things blew apart, leaving only a wasteland of sadness and death and tears for the fallen ones – oh, fallen ones! Letting yourselves be drowned and choked by your own nightmares of power, you have destroyed more than you'd ever dare to… and the torn sacrifices, of pain sacrifices, lay on the red-spilled sand cloaked in gold; when will be the wound in those souls healed? Time shall come when the tears won't have to fall, though, till then, they are destined to quench the thirsty throat of justice… oh, sacrifices! Even if needed, never shall them be fair!_**

**_            Us that are doomed to stay behind… we shall be waiting for our souls to become infinite, and wish that no more sacrifices shall be needed. Because that was the sad end of the Time before Time, and since then only the darkness of ignorance has reigned… even between us, the Memory Keepers._**

            She sighed as she read over her work. Sad words, sad tablet. She had no idea when was the "Time before time", though; it seemed to have a religious connotation, but she'd better not be so sure. It also talked about magic… raw and free, uh. Those should have been fun times. But someone sacrificed him or herself to seal that magic, and to be able to use it, a person needed to spend a little more calories… well, probably it was needed at the time. 

            She read it again, and blinked. 

            '_It looks like some paragraphs are missing…_' she looked at the tablet again.'_But the tablet doesn't look damaged, it's complete…_'

            She thought for a moment, and started to copy the symbols of the stone in another sheet of her pad. She had the feeling that tablet was just the piece of a greater puzzle… and, if she couldn't carry it with her, she should at least carry a copy of it to compare. 

            Her limited knowledge allowed her to make some hypothesis about the meaning of that story on the tablet, but, still, she decided not to think too hard about it. 

            Also, the Memory Keepers; she knew those kind. Although she liked to think of herself as a memory keeper, since she researched history and all, they were very different from her, and she didn't like them that much. 

            _He_ wasn't a Memory Keeper in the sense those words were given, but, in a way, he kept a lot of important memories; principally memories from the Underground. Gosh, thinking about _him_ made her blood boil!… 

            '_Damned sonuvabitch, bastard, runaway… you took the most precious thing we had… and, to make things worse, you left something that we wouldn't be able to live without… crap, although I should feel grateful for you, I only hate you. Do you have any idea of what you did? I doubt so. You ran away too quickly. I don't think you'd even care. Bastard._'

            She finished copying the tablet, and put the notepad under her shirt, held against her skin by the skirt. Picking the torch from the wall, she turned sharply, long dark skirt flowing around her.

            That was when she saw something running towards her. 

            Unimpressed, she lifted a hand, ready to strike using whatever came in her mind, should *it* try anything weird against her. 

            Her eyes went wide. Quickly, she put off the fire, drowning into darkness. 

            Another light suddenly appeared, far behind her. She shrunk against the wall, faintly seeing a person run past her, reaching out for the faraway shimmer.

            '_That's not a torch or flashlight…_' she thought, narrowing her eyes. 

~~*~~*~~

            Yuugi blinked and looked around, baffled, still holding the box between his hands. He was… in something that looked like a square room with a heavy-looking door just in front of him. It was difficult to be sure, since the place was dark and could only be faintly seen by the twilight that seemed to come from the floor.

            His insides twitched a little; he had remembered another time, when he had stood like an idiot in a dark alley, with that same box between his hands. The difference was that, then, he was too weak to move. Now, he was too afraid to move.

            He gulped, and stepped forward slowly. As nothing jumped to pounce on him, he eased a bit (just a bit), sitting on the floor, stiffly. Shakily, he put the box on the floor. Then, the question of the century hit him with all its might:

            '_What…** WHAT DO I DO NOW?!?!?!?!?!?**_' 

            Panting in panic, he looked around. No windows, no signs, no nothing, no nada. Only the door. Trembling, he got up and walked to the door, almost like a hurrying non-oiled weak-battery robot. He pushed it; it was just like pushing the Everest Mountain. 

            Yuugi felt himself slowly slide to the floor, shaking. Probably the door should be pulled, but there was nothing to pull it with; he could only hope someone would push the door from the outside. Holding on to that pseudo-hope, he crawled back to the center of the room, where the light was coming from, and sat beside the box with the puzzle. 

            At least he was feeling more waken up than he had the whole day, and he doubted he'd be passing out again anytime soon. On the other side, he could still feel that strange humming in the air – yes, feel; it was no sound. Some kind of vibration that was scaring him, making his hairs stand, his heartbeat fast with adrenaline… he'd better find something to do while he waited, or he'd get crazy.

            He reached to the box by his side, without really looking at what he was doing, and felt two of the pieces touch his hand; he picked them from the box, snapping them together absent-mindedly. 

            He almost dropped them when they started to shimmer. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

            October 14, 2002: Nyeheheh… evil cliff! This chapter was particularly hard, not just because I have to study (since I haven't, at least not like I should), but because I tripped on some little blocks along the way and it was hard to find a way around them. Anyway, I managed, here we are with chappie 6. 

            I'm happy today because I downloaded Bright Eyes, from Blind Guardian. Waaah!! ^___^ And in this chapter we find a lotta things to think about, eh? FINALLY we arrived at the main thing. Yeah, since I wrote TGLoA I've had the intention of making the third floor an entrance to a tunnel. And here enters the name I decided for my Alternate Yuugi-verse: **_Underground_**!! It rocks, isn't it? And the title makes sense now, doesn't it? Eye Gate Deep is because of the tile, that had an eye, and was a gate to a deep place… I know, it's corny and sucks anyway. But I can't really change it at this stage of the game, so… you guys are stuck with it until the end of your poor lives. Now, I hope you all will read and review. Since this one was a nasty chapter, I want to see if it was worth the struggle. You'll probably looooooove next chapter, since it's when Yuugi starts to show schizophrenic tendencies… ^___^ Ja!

            Oh, in a foot note, in this Yuugi-verse, Grandpa's eyes aren't violet like Yuugi's. They're red-brown. It'll be important later on… ^____^


	7. Voices and Runes

**Eye Gate Deep 07**

"Voices and runes" By Elanor Pam 

            October 14, 2002: Wai~!! Began a very promising chapter!! Yuugi finally started with the puzzle… er, he's started a long time ago, actually, but we all know that this time will be definitive!! Anyway, you guys are going to notice that "Yami" is a bit different in this Yuugi-verse from what he is in other fics. I prefer not to tell, though. It's up for you to notice the differences ^____^

            October 16, 2002: Something I forgot to state in the other chapter – the part that says "_the universe is infinite because it's one and not two_" was taken from a Dragon Ball Z fanfic (about Vegeta and Bulma ^___^) in Spanish, written by Nyaar (shinsekai.dreamers.com). I don't remember which one, though. 

            October 21, 2002: Geez, just when I was catching the pace of this chapter, these nasty school tests had to come. Worst of all, though, is that they were on Saturday and Sunday. Do you have any idea of what it is to wake up at 5:30 in the morning, on a SUNDAY?? It sucks. Anyway, today there was something interesting in my English course. A Canadian boy went to class and we asked him a bunch of questions about Canada that he probably thought was stupid. I was itching to ask him if he liked Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings or if he had ever watched animes, but I refrained myself and asked him about snow sports. It was fun, though. A classmate of mine asked why his nails were so weird (I personally didn't notice his nails, they just looked a bit bitten for me) and made our whole class want to crawl into a hole and die. After he was gone, my teacher was very pissed… Anyway, is it just me, or my random talk before chapter became a blog?

            October 28, 2002: Gyaaaaargh!! Guess What!! I got **_1_** in Language/Literature!! **_1 in 10!!_** That sucks!! Now my mom's putting me to study and read some boring classic books (Jorge Amado, etc); that's making things harder!! And my first University Entrance Tests are coming November 17, I'm in an extra course specifically for this test (damn course at weekends) and Dad's forgotten to gimme my weekly bus-money!! (Ok, that's off the point, but let me vent my anger) I'll go ahead with this chappie as much as I can, but it's hard!! School's draining my creativity cells!! 

            **Disclaimer:** You know the drill. Yu-gi-oh and its charas aren't mine, but the Underground idea, the made-up charas and this whole Yuugi-verse are my thing, unless stated otherwise. You'd better not steal them, or I'm going to make a voodoo to bring you writer-block.****

~*~*~*~*~*~

            Yuugi almost dropped the two puzzle pieces he had just snapped together. 

            '_Wha… wha…? They're shining!!_'

            He could only look at them, breathless. The shimmer was weak, but it was still a big add-up on the darkness surrounding him. The twilight surrounding him from the floor seemed to get weaker in front of it; his heart raced…

            Suddenly, he felt something cold touch his other hand. Startled, he turned his head to look – another piece.

            He hadn't noticed when his hand reached out for the box again. The pieces inside it were also shimmering lightly, a warm, secure, beckoning light… 

            On its own, his hand moved, snapping the third piece in its place. Shaking hands, Yuugi noticed the three pieces together seemed to glow a stronger light. 

            His hand pulled the box to his front, and picked another piece. Glazed eyes, Yuugi felt his head light; almost in a trance, he snapped another piece, and the object in his hands shone more. His heart thundered; he could feel humming from everywhere, as if some kind of energy was vibrating around him, affecting him; he wasn't even sure of what he was doing, as the puzzle in his hands glowed more and more with each added piece, and he felt more and more detached from his own mind, slowly slipping into a warm, secure, light filled void… caring hands taking away his own when they were faltering, moving them, caressing them, blowing on them softly; and, around him, the room gaped at the blinding blaze coming from the puzzle… some part of himself smiled, laughed in ecstasy, in an almost insane happiness; finally, it was almost complete, almost, just a bit more, just one more, and everything would be ok…

            Suddenly, his dreamlike state was disturbed by something. Something faint and far, but that seemed to shock the small part of his mind still awake; struggling through a numb mind, he noticed, in a detached daze, that… 

            His hand was inside the box. The _empty_ box. The puzzle was radiating with a burning golden light, filling the entire room, making the naked stone look a sand-like color – but there was a piece missing. 

            '_There's a piece missing—_' his mind repeated, the warm feeling fading into a cold, lifeless void.

            Slowly, the numbness in his mind turned into dread, and the dread turned into utter despair. 

            The puzzle fell on the floor, bouncing, as his body supported itself with both hands on its own, shaking with sobs, as he cried, both outside and inside… in his cold, despaired void, his anguished mind could only repeat and echo tidbits of roaming phrases, on and on…

            '_There's a piece missing—_'

            *_There's a piece missing—_*

            '_Missing—_'

            *_The last piece—_*

            '_It is—_'

            *_Oh, gods—_*

            '_It's gone—_'

            *_Why, why—_*

            '_Gone, it is—_'

            *_Can't be—_*

            '_It is—_'

            *_CAN'T BE—_*

            '_It is—_'

            *_YOU LIE!!_*

            '_It is—_'

            *_NO WAY!!_*

            '_Why, why—_'

            *_Gods, why—_*

            '_The piece—_'

            *_Is lost…_*

            His body swung back and forth with his uncontrollable, heartbroken sobs. Lost, the last piece was lost…

            [_I found it today, fallen just under your desk…_]

            _DO-KUN_

            For a second, Yuugi's heart stopped.

            *_Jounouchi-kun—_*

            '_Jounouchi-kun found it._'

            [_Look, Yuugi! It's just like the eye in this piece!_]

            '_Then we were separated from the others._'

            *_Jounouchi-kun has it._*

            '_Jounouchi-kun had picked the piece when it fell on the floor._'

            *_Jounouchi-kun has it!_*

            '_Jounouchi-kun, where are you—_'

            *_Jounouchi-kun, come and bring it—_*

            '_Jounouchi-kun, please come—_'

            *_Jounouchi-kun, hurry up—_*

            '_Jounouchi-kun, please come!!_'

            *_Jounouchi-kun—_*

            '_Jounouchi-kun—_'

            *'_JOUNOUCHI-KUN!!_'*

            "**JOUNOUCHI-KUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUN!!**" Yuugi's anguished voice echoed through the walls, reverberating in the tunnel outside and dying just before reaching its end.

~~*~~*~~

            Honda was almost reaching the weak light he was running towards; he could already make out the outline of someone (apparently) sitting on the floor, holding it.

            After getting nearer, he noticed hazel-blond hair reflecting some of the light. He was almost sure of who was it, but it was better to check out… he breathed deeply…

            "**BOO!!**" he screamed, the sudden loud sound reverberating along the corridor.

            "**_WaAAAAH!!_**" the person dropped whatever the shining thingamajig was, and seemed to be trying to climb the wall. 

            Honda decreased his pace, since we was sure of whom he had found, and calmly approached the spider-blond.

            "Stop overreacting, man, it's me."

            Jounouchi stopped running up the wall, letting himself slid to the ground. He squeaked a bit, obviously trying to say something. His whole body trembled. 

            "Geez, you sure overreacted, dude!" he laughed a little, picking the shiny thingy from the floor and sitting behind the blond. 

            He then saw that Jounouchi was neither laughing nor angry. In fact, he could barely manage to shot the dark-haired a reproachful and slightly hurt glare, between gasps for breath. Honda looked at the floor, sighing. 

            "I know, I know. Bad joke. I shouldn't have done that. Sorry."

            Jounouchi patted him on the shoulders, still unable to utter a word, and turned to sit, slumping on the floor and somehow bonking his head against the wall. He moaned weakly. For a minute, the only sound was Jounouchi's trembling gasps for air, and even they calmed down. 

            "Now…" Honda broke the deafening silence. "What's new?"

            "I'm lost," answered Jou through pale lips, his voice barely audible, but with a playful undertone.

            "Now that's some coincidence!!" exclaimed Honda, in a delighted tone. "I'm lost too. How incredible! The world is so small…"

            "Not really," breathed Jou, picking the shining thingy from Honda's hand as if the dark-haired was a child holding his mom's earring, when it should have been in other place. "If it was smaller, maybe we wouldn't be lost."

            "That's some impressive logic," Honda stated, in a casual tone. "Now, what's that shining gizmo you're holding? I didn't even have time to look at it."

            "Prepare thyself, brother," Jounouchi smirked, his lips still pale. He held it out for Honda to look at. 

            Honda's lips parted, but no sound came out. The eye carved on the puzzle piece looked at him innocently.

            "…holy @#&#%!!" he exclaimed, after half a minute.

            "Yeah, that pretty much sums everything up," Jou sighed. "But this thing saved me when I was in the edge of a nervous breakdown. It kinda seems the thing Yuugi'd do for you; give whatever little comfort he can to save your soul." He laughed a bit. "I wonder where the little messenger from above ended up. For some reason, this piece being here makes me worry…"

            "Well, Yuugi'd never part with it, you know," Honda begun. "But the pieces fell on the floor and you just happened to pick this one when everything went weird."

            "I remember I had a similar dream on the night of Friday to Saturday…" Jou's eyes became distant, as he recalled the details of the dream. "We were in the classroom, picking Yuugi's puzzle pieces, and then I was going to pick this one just under his desk when it shimmered and suddenly things went numb… I let it go and then the floor disappeared and I started falling into a dark place…" he shuddered.

            "So…" Honda was trying to absorb it "Saturday, when you really found it, you remembered the dream and shuddered?"

            "No, I didn't… I just had a weird feeling, I dunno…" Jou was thoughtful. He looked at the piece, shimmering lightly in the middle of the dark, and for some moments he let himself be mesmerized by it. For some long moments… until something hit his mind.

            Honda almost ran up the wall when Jounouchi suddenly straightened his body, as if a needle had pricked him. 

            "Hey, hey!! I know that was a bad prank, but no need for revenge!!" he shot, hand in chest, his heart racing.

            No response. Feeling a bucket of cold water being turned on his guts, Honda turned to his longtime friend. 

            He was pale. Pale as the Death. 

            "J… Jounouchi? Can you hear me? JOU!!"

            The blond boy didn't hear. Inside his ears, reverberating through his head, another sound echoed, far, far away…

            *_Jounouchi-kun!!_*

            *_Bring it, bring it quickly!!_*

            *_Bring it…_*

            *_This is the last opportunity… Jounouchi-kun—_*

            ***_COME, PLEASE!!_***

            The piece fell from Jounouchi's hand. 

            "Ho… Honda…"

            Honda was already shaking him by the jacket. "You awake…" he breathed out. "Thank goodness, I thought you had become autistic or something…"

            "I… think I heard Yuugi's voice…"

            Honda blinked at him, the place falling in silence. 

            "I take back what I said. You _are_ autistic." Honda let him go, as if afraid of catching some disease. 

            "I'm serious," Jounouchi's voice trembled with anxiety and fear, as he stood up, picking the piece and steadying himself with the wall. "I was looking at this… thing, and suddenly I started hearing this familiar voice shouting at me from far away… It was calling me… asking me to 'bring it quickly'…"

            He held the piece a bit far from him, as if it could jump into his face, and, to their surprise, the shimmer faded a bit. 

            "What?" both sputtered.

            Jounouchi pulled it to himself, and the glow increased. Deciding to use RPG-logic, he extended the light to his side… and the glow increased more. 

            "Maybe… maybe it'll lead to the rest of the puzzle," Jounouchi stuttered, as Honda looked at him, disbelief all over his face. 

            "What? What makes you think that? This whole thing is _too_ weird, it shouldn't even be _shining_ in the first place!! Jounouchi, this ain't a movie. This ain't a game. This-is-real. Got it? It's probably reacting with who-knows-what and having some chemical reaction or what-the-he…"

            "Honda," Jounouchi began, his voice eerily calm "This ain't a movie nor a game. But you still got 12 in your composition, which shows you have no imagination at all. You just left your brain to rot in front of the TV while your body played soccer or whatever. Honda, _nothing normal has happened in this last week_. Hasn't this already entered whatever's left of your mind? The ghost, the tile, this damned tunnel, and you're freaking out because a puzzle piece seems to be calling something not that far. Damn, I'm friggin' freakin' out here but it's 'cause I'm a big child with a ghost trauma and I can't help it!! At least you, acting all brave, just like nothing has happened, should be able to ratiocinate better than me!!"

            The blond couldn't help but pant after such a long speech. Snorting, he ignored Honda's open mouth and walked, holding the piece in front of him. With each step he walked, it seemed to glow a bit more…

            He felt Honda's hand touch his shoulder. 

            "Hey, bro, you'll probably pass out when you see a rock dropped on the floor; s'meone has to go with you…"

            "Thanks," Jou said, dryly. He didn't think he'd manage to pass out in front of a rock, but there could be worse things, worse even than what his imagination could create…

            Honda and he were very good at double fight, actually. Better together than on their own.

~~*~~*~~

            Haruno looked from the shadows; as the two boys crossed her, she shrunk into the dark as much as she could. So, everything was going as planned. 

            Her eyes narrowed as they went away. She'd been spying some teens that month, but from them, the blond one was surely one of the most intriguing. Other of the intriguing kind, of course, was Yuugi. Bah, none of them were normal, anyway. But this… Katsuya Jounouchi, yeah. This Katsuya had something a bit different from all the others… 

            Oh, yeah… it was _obvious_. He was blond. He looked like a gaijin, duh. She shrugged. She'd never grow used to gaijins, as much as she'd been working with them for years.

            She blinked. 

            He had turned his head towards her. Of course he couldn't _possibly_ be seeing her in the pitch-black darkness, but his troubled hazel eyes held the disturbing knowledge of *something* lurking in the shadows.

            She shifted, uncomfortable. Yeah, of course. He and his uncanny senses. As stealthily as she could manage, she stepped backwards, backwards, backwards… until the faint light he was carrying started moving away again. But…

            It was _increasing_ its light. 

            She couldn't help but smirk. She'd never think things would actually go _better_ than planned.

            Haruno faded in the darkness. 

~~*~~*~~

            Sugoroku wasn't as weak as a man his age should be. But, still, walking all this time with nothing new to look at was tiring, and, worst of all…

            He had no idea where Yuugi was. He could be passing by a parallel tunnel towards the opposite side, for all he knew. Sighing, he checked his surrounds again. It seemed the place he was had more cracks on the wall… and some on the floor, he noticed as he tripped on one, cursing. 

            Picking the flashlight he had dropped, the old man gasped as the beam revealed a very well known figure sprawled on the hard ground. 

            Anzu.

            "Oh _GOD_!!" he ran to her, kneeling by her side, his chest squeezing as he took notice of the blood running down her forehead. It was dried already, but the bump looked ugly, a nasty purple color surrounding the wound in a large circle.

            His hands trembling, he pulled a handkerchief from his pocket, pressing it against the wound as lightly as he could manage. Still, her face twisted, and she moaned.

            Her eyes suddenly shot open; she soon closed them again, flinching – the flashlight was practically in her face. He turned it to another side, allowing her to open her eyes again. 

            She blinked at him, eyes hazy and out of focus. 

            "Mu… Mutou-san…?"

            "…yeah…" he blinked at her, a bit unsure of what to answer.

            To his surprise, Anzu laughed. It was almost a whisper, barely echoing on the surrounding walls, but her eyes shone and her lips curved graciously. 

            "…wha… what?"

            "Mutou-san…" she whispered. "You looked a lot like Yuugi just now… blinking so innocently!…"

            Her eyes faded out of focus once more, as she faced the darkness above her. Seeing her sweet smile, the way her eyes shone and her face melted in tenderness, Sugoroku was quite sure of what she could see in her mind…

            Anzu blinked back to reality and tried to sit up, but failed. Noticing her difficulty, Sugoroku helped her.

            "How did you get that bump?" he asked, grabbing a small towel from his backpack and wrapping her forehead with it. "It looks horrible… did someone hit you? Did you see who was it?"

            "No, no one hit me…" she said, weakly, a hand on her forehead "I was just running and hit that wall," she motioned vaguely ahead of her.

            Sugoroku turned the flashlight towards said wall, just to see if it was indeed a wall she had hit her head on. There, they saw a small smear of blood, already dried. 

            But that wasn't the reason he dropped the flashlight on the ground.

            "Mu… Mutou-san…" Anzu gripped his sleeve, as everything seemed to spin. "Those… those were some kind of ancient characters, right? What are they doing here… we're in Japan!…" 

            She waited some time; there was no answer, though, as he looked ahead, wide-eyed. A possibility sneaked into her mind…

            "…are we?"

            He picked the flashlight with shaking fingers, his lips trembling.

            "Not exactly, Anzu… not really."

            He pointed the flashlight to the writings on the wall; Anzu's blood was smeared on a crack in the wall just above it. It gave the eerie impression that the writings were bleeding.

            "C… can you read what it says?" her voice trembled slightly. "You… you were an archeologist and all…"

            "I can… they're ancient runes, that the Celts used," he answered, standing up slowly, Anzu leaning on him to do so. "That's kind of what's giving me the creeps, you know…"

            "So…" she whispered, staggering on her feet. "What… what does it say?"

            He breathed, deeply, and began, his voice echoing lonely through the walls.

            "**_The One should have seen it – all that was to fall upon the world, destroying all that was learnt and built, leaving only ashes behind… but even wise eyes can fail to see it all; nonetheless, light is bound to chase the shadows away sooner or later… and it happened, in the most possibly painful way. All the Ones together had seen a lot, but unfortunately not enough… nevertheless, the right thing was done in the end. _**

**_            The fateful day was to come; all the Ones had walked their own paths and followed their own beliefs; divided, some of them let themselves Fall and be eaten by promises of power and treasures, taking advantage of the power they had… innocent tools in the end. Then the wait was finally over. _**

**_            But nothing went as they expected. The sky darkened; the ground shook; lightening showered down; the sun fell on the Earth; as people finally understood the foolishness of their own acts, as all the Ones held their hands like they should have done, fire consumed it all…_**"

            His voice trembled at the end, as he put his hand on his chest, as if in pain.

            "Mutou-san!" Anzu held him by his arm, fretful, and tried to hold him, even though her head was pounding. 

            "It's nothing," he breathed out, suddenly. '_That's… that's…_'

            "Like hell it's nothing!!" Anzu was getting angry and her head wasn't helping. "If you're anything like Yuugi you're probably having a heart attack and…"

            "I'm going to have one if you keep scowling at me like that," he straightened himself, wiping sweat from his brow. "Look, Anzu, that thing is telling something few, but very few archeologists in the world know about. It's confusing and has a load of things I never heard about, but it seems to be talking about the legend of the first Cataclysm…"

            The look Anzu gave him showed just how much she could understand of everything he had said. He sighed. 

            "Anzu… you probably know a lot of legends and prophecies made by a lot of religions and such, telling about the end of the world, right?"

            She nodded, mouth slightly open.

            "Legends don't come out of the air. Legends are _facts_. Facts that, after a lot of time and retelling, simply lost most of the touch they had with reality… some of them are written down, but in such a way that people take everything literally, and the true meaning of the words is forgotten. Yeah, that's a good way to put it – legends are half-forgotten facts."

            She nodded again. 

            "That's all that archeologists like me have to work with. We take the legends, find out somehow where they took place, fumble everything and find a way to turn the legends back into facts. Some legends are simply impossible to work with; others are still a mystery, but seem to have something of true on them. Troy is a very good example of a legend turned into fact. Atlantis is a mystery, but seems to be a possibility if you take into account the theory of the Tectonic Plaques, when was the last polarity inversion of the Earth and the time of the discovery of agriculture…"

            He stopped ranting when he noticed the rather dazed look in Anzu's eyes. He was worried for a moment, but when she blinked and looked cluelessly at him, he thought that maybe he should just get to the point.

            "Anyway… some of us Archeologists believe that such colorful description of the End of the World must have come from somewhere. Usually people don't have all this imagination about something they have never experienced… and it seemed to connect with a cataclysm there was some thousands of years ago."

            "Thousands of years ago?!" Anzu gaped, looking at the old man, wide-eyed. "How do you know that?"

            She didn't ask anything more, but, by the look on her eyes, he knew the next question would have been 'are you _that_ old?'. Maybe she hit her head really hard…

            "There are scientific proofs, my dear. Scientific proofs."

            She mouthed "oh" and blinked, interested in what would come next.

            "Some researches show that, some thousands of years ago, a great geographic catastrophe happened. Some parts of the continents sunk, and others came up; drastic climatic changes happened all over the place… theories say it was because the Polarity of the Earth inverted; you know, before that, a compass would have pointed south and not north…"

            The girl's blue eyes were wide as saucers; she had even forgotten to breath. 

            "The story of it was probably told to descendants, that started to use difficult language to spice up the story or I don't know what… anyway, what was meant to be just adorned facts became a legend – fantastic things with no explanation, and hard to know if it's true or not. That writing on the wall seems to have a piece of such a story… but I don't remember ever hearing about this one – except, of course, about the special effects: the sun falling, lightening showering, that's commonplace."

            He looked at it again, the flashlight's beam trembling a little with excitement. His eyes shone in the dim light. 

            "I… never thought I'd find something about it _here_," he whispered. "The eye of Horus is all over the place, but I never thought I'd find _such_ a thing…"

            Anzu kept on silence. Obviously, that was a very important moment for that old man; she should let him savor it. Also, it seemed to be some kind of historical treasure; she could feel an ancient aura around the place, and respected it.

            "Anzu!!" Sugoroku's voice was bright as he turned to her, eyes shining with happiness. "Let's find Yuugi, quickly!!"

            "Ahn?" she blinked at him, her vision still full of dark spots. Suddenly her eyes widened. "Yuugi… YUUGI!! **_WHERE'S YUUGI??_**"

            She took some staggering steps forwards, and was quickly held by Sugoroku; she was suddenly dizzy, and her head pounded with each step.

            "Easy, there," he patted her arm, soothingly. "Yuugi wouldn't want to see you like this. And you know as much as I do that he's capable of dealing with bigger problems when it's needed…"

            He smiled as he helped her walk, trying to ignore the little voices on the back of his head that told him…

            '_Yuugi was sick, remember?_'

            '_Hey, you didn't tell her everything…_'

            '_It seems she has a concussion…_'

            '_Why was that thing in runes? Horus is Egyptian!_'

            '_Shaddup!_'

~~*~~*~~

            She huffed and puffed, her high-heeled shoes helping at nothing as they got stuck in cracks. Her only source of light was her digital watch. 

            '_So, daddy's inheritance was really there!! That goddamned bastard was really smart, I have to give him that. He just never thought I'd come and face him; his face was wonderful when I shoved that gun into his face!!_'

            Suzuki-sensei smiled wickedly, but swore when one of her heels got stuck again; irritated, she took her shoes out, carrying them on a hand while she ran. 

            '_I just hope there's no lost nail or glass shard around here…_'

            She stopped abruptly as her watch's limited light showed a wall just ahead of her. She turned to the side, seeing the way was open, and started running again. 

            '_What I wasn't counting was that it would take me to some weird place today of all days…_'

            She snorted, and cursed loudly when she tripped in a bigger crack.

            "Damn old place…"

~*~*~*~*~*~

            October 29, 2002: Gyaaaa! Finally!! It was harder than I thought it would!! Anyway, next chapter is a mystery; it may come in December, after the two first Entrance Tests, or next year's December, if I don't manage to pass (you know, Mom's probably going to cut Internet for a year if I don't…) I had to get this out of my system or I wouldn't be able to study in peace. I hope I'm more in the mood tomorrow. I least I got a *checks out again* 95 in my English Mid-term. Not bad at all *grins*, in fact, I wish I could trade my grade in English for my one in Portuguese, then I wouldn't be in such a situation!! 

            Also, big twist on the way, and, sorry Yami didn't actually _appear_ this chapter as I said he would. He has been there all the time, in a way, but his actual entrance will have to wait for the sake of good, non-rushed plot. I gave a bit more of Suzuki in this, and also _a lot_ of Haruno; just come back a few chapters and you'll get _almost_ all of it. Of course, the juicy thing is completely hidden, I gave no sign of it ^____^

            Now I have a much better idea of Suzuki's place in this story, as well as the participation of the other guys on Yuugi's and Yami's matters throughout this set. I hope some things manage to be as surprising as I want them to be…

            Also, big thanks to that nice old bunch of faithful readers and reviewers, which somehow kept me alive in this last month of suffering and torture. Speaking of torture, I have three math classes tomorrow… *groans* Let me say farewell before I drown you too much into my worthless life…


	8. Beast and Panther

Eye Gate Deep 08

By Elanor Pam "Beast and Panther" 

            October 31, 2002: Began this chappie… two days after finishing my other one; I'm not really sure how to begin… just hope this isn't a block… geez, writing is difficult. Hey, now something funny comes to my mind: Shouldn't I be grateful for having to study _Brazilian_ Literature? It's less than 500 years old… (Portuguese Literature goes back to a thousand or more, not sure… and just imagine what _Greeks_ have to study!! Since the philosophers and such it's been 2000 and a half…)

            November 25, 2002: Gaaaah… I feel… drained… damn tests…

            November 26, 2002: I discovered a song that gave me a LOT of inspiration: The Modern End, by Tristania!! (It's a cover of a song by Zeromancer, but I never heard the original) It's simply _awesome_!! So beautiful it makes me feel like I'm in another place!! ^___^ You can try reading the part with Yuugi while listening to it!!

            December 12, 2002: Hm… almost two pages written today… and I thought I wouldn't write a word. Good thing I tried. The first time I try writing a fight scene in English – geez, I never had to check the dictionary so many times a sentence… anyway, I liked the fight. If you're fan of butt-kicking Jounouchi and Honda, you'll like it too…

            **Disclaimer:** This is a FANfic, dude. The plot is mine, though. Also Suzuki-sensei and Haruno Takasugi and the Headmaster and the Engravings and the writers Jo-Ka and Yoshitaka and the book "The Shining Blue Star" and probably a bunch of things I don't remember right now. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

            Suzuki asked herself just how many times she had cussed in those last fifteen minutes. Tripping on something once again, she just let it be. It was highly unlikely that her impressive colloquial vocabulary would make her toenails go back to what they used to be. 

            She checked around with the pitiful light coming from her watch, noticing she had arrived at a different place. The walls were smoother, but… they seemed scratched… roughly so, as if by hurrying hands; they seemed to be in some kind of ancient writing. It looked slightly like hieroglyphs, but so messy that it was impossible to make anything out of it…

            She shouldn't be surprised that an ancient writing was in a place with ancient Eye engravings all over it, but they still seemed out of place; maybe it was because they seemed a lot newer than the rest… it was a shame she couldn't read it. Examining them closely, she came to the conclusion that they had been hurriedly written with a stone, probably as some kind of danger message.

            She seriously considered running back and pounding on the walls searching for a way out – no, no way, she _couldn't_, not at that stage of the game. She had to get him. Shoving the bad feelings down her throat, she went ahead, a hand on the wall, blinking in the darkness at the only visible thing – **00:24.18**…

            She blinked. Was it her or she could hear steps? 

~~*~~*~~

            Sugoroku examined the place intently. In front of him, a circle on the ground seemed to glow softly. He remembered he had appeared there on a place like that; he had also passed another one before finding Anzu. Those were probably the places were people were transported to. 

            '_That sounds so much like a corny sci-fi movie…_'

            Shoving the thought away, he shook Anzu a bit. She was leaning heavily on him, swaying on her feet, and seemed to be about to pass out any minute. Muffled moans also attracted his attention, but he could see she was trying to be quiet… it was probably the aftereffects of being around Yuugi too much. 

            Not that knowing she had a concussion would help them in any way, though. At least she was trying to save him the worry.

            After seeing nothing big or new, they kept on, Sugoroku helping the girl walk. He was almost sure they'd find someone; the patch of light meant someone had appeared there. And, as they hadn't passed any opening on the wall, it was very likely the person would be directly ahead. Some long, long minutes passed until the flashlight's beam caught something fallen on the ground…

            A high-heeled shoe. 

            He rushed towards it, half-carrying a semi-conscious Anzu, and, as his right arm was busy keeping the girl from dropping on the ground, he picked it with a finger, doing some jugglery with his hand to keep both flashlight and shoe from falling, while illuminating the latter. Anzu looked at it in a daze, seeming worse than before.

            It was a dark-gray shoe, thin-heeled but not very high. Frowning, he tried to recall which of the two women was using high-heeled shoes… but who would pay attention to such things at a time like that? 

            On the other side, if _she_ were who he thought she was, then she wasn't using any high shoe. Her height looked normal, one centimeter more at the most – a mistake, ironically from the-one-who-hated-mistakes. Not that some inches more would have fooled him, was his thought as he smirked quietly. 

            "Mutou-san…" whispered Anzu. "I think… that's Suzuki-sensei's shoe…"

            "Hm?" Sugoroku turned to her, slightly surprised. "How do you know?"

            "Takasugi was wearing a dark-red wrist-sleeved shirt, and a long dark skirt made with some flowing material, that got to her ankles. They wouldn't look good together, and she could trip on them…"

            The old man blinked, his mouth slightly open. 

            "On the other side, Suzuki-sensei had a black, tight skirt that got to her knees, and a gray feminine blazer over it. It would fit perfectly." Anzu smiled at him, almost in a Yuugi-ish way. 

            "Er…" he suddenly noticed his mouth hanging open and closed it, standing and helping her up. "I had another trail of thought but arrived at the same conclusion. Anyway, let's go, she's probably up ahead…"

            "Maybe Yuugi is somewhere ahead, too?" her voice was full of hope. 

            "I surely hope so…" he smiled, as they started walking again.

~~*~~*~~

            Jounouchi had no idea of how long they had been walking. Honda and he hadn't spotted anything aside from the usual walls and an eye here and there. His companion was already starting to grumble under his breath, and the blond glared at the ground he could see, trying to lock the whimpering out; the puzzle piece was illuminating some good three meters ahead. 

            Well, that was a consolation, he guessed, as both boys carefully avoided a rather large crack that would have given them a scare if their feet got stuck. The place seemed to be getting more and more abandoned and old. 

            "Hey, Jou…"

            "Yeah, the walls. I noticed it."

            Some writings had been roughly carved on the walls, quickly, dried and old blood spots over them, here and there; the tunnel narrowed. 

            They saw themselves in front of a dead end.

            "Grrrrrrrreeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaat…" the two moaned loudly, the sound reverberating behind them. 

            Honda held his head in his hands, turning around and whimpering some words better left unsaid; Jounouchi snorted, looking at the piece, frowning. It was glowing stronger by the minute. He was sure that was the right place, they _were_ arriving somewhere, but… 

            He lifted his head, looking intently at the wall in front of him. Maybe that place _was_ somewhere, some disguised and important where, but somewhere… right?

            As he wasn't making sense to himself, he concentrated on examining the wall. 

            Contrasting with the walls to the sides, the one in front of them was smooth, clean, adorned with delicate carvings and writings in some language that looked like Hieroglyphs (if he remembered what the Egyptian writings were called). It also had a strange triangle… with an eye. 

            Jounouchi looked at the piece, then at the wall. 

            "After all this damned walking, guess what, we're stuck… so much for following this damned piece…" Honda grumbled, expecting his companion to turn at him with a withering look. He was surprised when there was no reaction, and turned to the blond boy.

            If Jounouchi thought very hard about it, he'd notice he had been having a lot of strange inspirations; for the time being, though, he welcomed them. Lifting the piece slowly between trembling fingers, he inserted it in the triangle at the wall. 

            In front of the two flabbergasted teens, the writings started to shine, the light spreading itself over the ground and through the walls; the scratches stood out against the glare, the blood spots vivid. 

            The ground seemed to disappear under them. 

            "**_GYAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!_**"

~~*~~*~~

            *_Come soon… Jounouchi-kun…_*

            Yuugi's glassy and hazy eyes looked towards the floor, but he could see nothing. His head was bent, his locks fluttering slowly, framing his countenance almost magically. 

            His whole body was bent, like a withering flower waiting desperately for water to give it strength. He was kneeled on the floor, and his arms were limp beside his body; his thin figure was eerie, mysterious, in the middle of the golden, liquid light that filled the whole room and flowed around his small form. 

            Little spots of white light danced around him, almost like fluttering snow; the stonewalls reflected the light to all sides. Everything seemed to be trying to comfort him. 

            *_Jounouchi-kun… come soon…_*

            The almost finished puzzle hovered in front of him as if it was inside water, shining so much its shape could be barely seen. Yuugi's locks fluttered around his expressionless, but beautiful face…

            *_Jounouchi-kun… I know you will…_*

~~*~~*~~

            Ghostly locks also fluttered around, as she looked over them. Her long, beautiful dress danced around her thin form, her eyes closed sadly. 

            *_Yuugi… I'm sorry to put you in such difficulty… but it's for the best. Will you forgive me? Will you ever forgive me for being the cause of all this pain you've had since childhood?_*

            She opened her eyes, looking up. 

            *_You can see us, can't you? You can see me… you can see him… so please, all of you… please be kind with him in this never-ending test…_*

            Then her beautiful, big, ghostly eyes traveled down, pausing at a faraway place. 

            *_And you, dear? Can you see him too? I know you can. I know you are looking after him like all of us. It was not your fault… so, please, stop grieving…_*

            She smiled. It was such a beautiful, innocent, angelic smile… 

            *_I'll be watching over you, even if I'm forbidden to talk to you. So please… stop grieving…_*

            Slowly, very slowly, she melted and dissipated in the air, like smoke… 

~~*~~*~~

            Honda was the first to get up. Wincing, he put a hand to his head, blinking. He looked around. 

            Even the light from the puzzle piece, which somehow had ended up there with them, couldn't illuminate the place. All the golden light showed was the floor upon which they were – a floor neatly covered with mosaics, forming an image that could only be partially seen in the light. For some reason, he thought that it was creepy.

            In fact, the whole place was creepy. He recoiled a bit, and almost jumped when his hand touched something near him. Shaking, he turned around to see what it was…

            He sighed. '_It's just Jounouchi…_'

            He picked the puzzle piece to illuminate the fallen one, and looked at the blond boy's face. He looked around again. '_For some reason I think it'd be better for him to stay like he is…_'

            Lost in thoughts, it took some time for his mind to register the burning sensation on his fingers… 

            "**YOUCH!!!**"

            …but he noticed it in time to let go of the piece before he lost his fingerprints. 

            '_What the heck…?_'

            He looked wide-eyed at the golden toy, as it glared at him stubbornly, and blinked, trying to get the strange thoughts out of his head. Puzzle pieces don't glare at people, and they aren't stubborn. They're just puzzle pieces…

            But then again, nothing normal had been happening those last days. Jounouchi was right – all they could do was go with the flow, even if it was all craziness. On the other side, that meant admitting that the thing had its own will and mind… 

            He shuddered. That was more than impossible. That was _nuts_. 

            "Waaahnnaaangaaah…" someone mumbled behind him, and he heard the rustling of cloth. Turning, he saw Jounouchi sitting, a hand to his forehead, blinking and shaking his head. The boy looked at him. "Oi, Honda… what happened…?"

            Suddenly his eyes took in the beautiful scenario around them. Half amused, half sorry, Honda quietly watched as his face and lips were drained of its colors, leaving something that looked like a non-painted wax doll. The poor boy even forgot to open his eyes like saucers, was what a small part of Honda's brain noticed. His honey-colored eyes seemed to follow unseen things around…

            Jounouchi blinked, shaking his head again, and reached a trembling hand to the puzzle piece fallen some distance from him. "Leeeeeeet-t-t's c-cont-t-tinue… ri-i-ight?" he smiled, or tried to. 

            Before Honda could even try to warn him, he had picked the piece, and was standing up, his knees visibly crumpling under him. Still, he willed himself to stay up, and started walking. After recovering some sense in his legs, he turned to his companion ready to call him to go. 

            Honda just looked at him, complete disbelief all over his face.

            "Whaaat?" although he visibly couldn't control his voice, Jounouchi's face showed that he thought his friend was in for some joke, and he would control his fist long enough to throw a good punch if it was so. 

            But it seemed it wasn't. Jounouchi looked intently at the dark-haired boy, and even waved a hand in front of his face, but Honda kept on looking like a dead fish. The blond inhaled deep, trembling. 

            "Honda, stop with that, you're scaring me… you're scaring me more than I'm scared already… C'mon, stop with the joke already…"

            He felt something exhale in the back of his neck, strands of blond hair flying to his face. It was then that he understood. Honda wasn't looking at him. He was looking at something _behind_ him. 

            Almost in slow motion, Jounouchi turned his head to face whatever was blowing on his neck. Then he also understood the disbelief in Honda's face. 

            First the magical passages, then the tunnels, the darkness, the cracks, the writings and now a strange bulky beast with glowing eyes and enormous, pointy fangs trickling droll… heck, he felt he was inside a game of _Heretic_! 

            That was just _too much_ for the same night, the two wished to say; the only thing that came out, though, was… 

            "**_MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOMMYYYYYYYYY!!_**"

            Torches flared all around them, one by one, forming a circle. Hugging each other in panic, they saw themselves in the middle of a circular room, the mosaic floor forming concentric circles; around each circle, more weird writings. Six bigger torches were around the smaller circle, their flames burning furiously. 

            It all looked too much like a battle arena for their tastes.

            "Oh, heck, the thing is even uglier now that it's visible…" Honda whispered. 

            "G-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g-g…" was the answer. Honda didn't care. 

            Jounouchi wasn't joking when he thought about the game "Heretic"; that was the only place he'd seen such a weird, ugly thing. On the other side, his small knowledge of video games weren't of much help, and he hadn't money for a goddamned VCR, much less a video game or computer – although none of the boys was worried about video games when the beast jumped some three meters tall to squash them with two enormous feet…

            Honda had enough presence of mind to push them both out of the way, while the fiend crushed the floor he – er, it – fell on; it buried itself till the part Honda really hoped was its knees and not some other hideous, horrible thing, and then it turned its massive head – that seemed to occupy part of what should probably be its chest – to the teens, its eyes glowing a sickening, venomous green, its dirty and half-rotten fangs dripping more spit on the floor…

            That boiled and melted under it.

            Honda tried to say "**_Eeeek_**", but the only thing that came out was a raspy, muffled squeak that sounded like a rubber duck being stepped on.

            The beast pulled its feet, yanking some stone pieces with it, and started to walk slowly towards them; it seemed to be taking its time, enjoying the terror of its defenseless preys. A grimace that was probably meant to be a grin spread itself through its face, making it look even more repugnant and bloodcurdling than it already was. 

            Honda groped around, his eyes glued on the thing, till he found a piece of cloth; he started to shake it back and forth, trying to get any reaction from the motionless body behind him. After no response, he risked taking a look…

            …to see Jounouchi frozen on the floor, his eyes looking at the shadows above, his mouth foaming. 

            "Oh, not now," he moaned, shaking the blond boy, as he heard running steps approaching them. He closed his eyes tightly, gulping and muttering, "This is a nightmare, this is a nightmare, this is a nightmare…"

            _RIIIIIP_

            An excruciating pain in his back made him finally face the miserable truth: it was _real_. 

~~*~~*~~

            Jounouchi felt himself being brutally shaken out of his daze as something heavy fell on top of him; something warm, a bit sticky, spilled on his clothes. Great, his father had thrown up on top of him again. 

            Wait, wait. His bed wasn't so hard. He was holding something warm on his hand. And he wouldn't forget locking his bedroom door, for goodness sake; it was what kept him alive. He tried opening his eyes, but for some reason his whole body seemed numb and stiff. He made an effort, and finally opened his eyes, sitting up in a jump. In a fraction of second, he wished he hadn't. 

            Honda was the heavy thing that had fallen on him, the warm and sticky liquid being the blood that oozed out of three diagonal rips on his back. The teen lifted his eyes to see the thing that attacked him snarl and bare its teeth in a repulsive smirk, flexing a long limb with three claws drenched in blood. Slowly, it stretched its head towards the blond. 

            For a moment, everything seemed unreal; in a second that seemed to crawl on forever, Jounouchi remembered sadly what he had eaten on dinner, yeah, it had been rice and olives with chicken, and lemon juice… Sugoroku-jii-san was a wonderful cook… ooh, that dinner seemed to have been months ago… 

            Now everything was gone, gushed out of his mouth into the demon's face – and eyes. 

            "**_RRRRRRWWWWWWWWOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGH!!!_**"

            Jounouchi grabbed Honda by the collar and pulled him as he jumped, his reflexes and strength amplified by the terror. The beast opened a crater on the ground, but the two were already four meters away, Honda on Jounouchi's shoulder; both out of the flying bricks's range. 

            The teen was painfully awake now, as tense as a violin string, in that state beyond panic where nothing could jolt him. He wiped the vomit that had stuck in his chin, staring at the fiend with hard hazel eyes; the beast growled at him, enraged, still trying to wipe the vomit out of its face with thin limbs, clumsily. 

             It was quite taken aback when its prey growled back at him, dropping his companion on the floor with a _SHBOFT_.

            It was definitely surprised when its would-be prey jumped some five meters in the air, raising his arms with the grace of a ballerina, his eyes glowing eerily in the shadows cast by his hair against the light in his hand. 

~~*~~*~~

            His hair floating around in the liquid, fluid light, Yuugi stared into the floor ahead. His eyes were hard and, at the same time, foggy, as he concentrated on something far; his body, though, seemed almost completely slumped.

            *_Jounouchi-kun…_*

~~*~~*~~

            Honda lifted his head groggily, blinking through the pain at the nearest source of light he could see. Recognizing Jounouchi's hand and the Puzzle Piece From Hell, he calmed down slightly; still, he wondered why they were still alive in the fir—

            Jounouchi disappeared from his point of view, letting him see the beast as it gaped at something above – raising his head, Honda localized his friend as he raised his arms like a killing panther, bending a leg in a hellish dance. 

            He could only gawk as his lifelong friend directed a kick at the monster, which was so stupefied that could barely step aside to avoid the hit. 

            It wasn't enough, as a fist came down on its face, making the beast double on its back before the inertia made its feet kick the air. Even before it hit the ground, though, the attacker had already jumped away, yanking his foot out of the little crater without even touching the floor with the other. 

            Jounouchi swerved on the air and landed on his two feet, the impulse dragging him for some distance, lifting dust; he touched the floor with a hand to keep his balance, the other still holding the shining piece, and stopped after some seconds.

            Honda felt something cold creep up his backbone as Jounouchi kept on that position, a cloud of dust fluttering around his feet and hand lazily. Jounouchi's hair fell on his shadowed face and eyes – shimmering eyes that seemed not to be his own…

            He was right. The blond looked entirely like a killing panther. 

            The beast yanked itself out of the floor, leaving an ugly imprint of its upper body, and turned towards his newfound enemy slowly. For seconds that seemed to be an eternity it seemed to measure the pros and cons of attacking the ex-prey, crouched on the floor as if read to jump and tear.

            It turned towards Honda and silently pounced, claws poised. 

            "**_ORYAAAAAAAAA!!_**" 

            It hit Jounouchi on the chest, headfirst. 

~~*~~*~~

            Jounouchi inhaled heavily, holding his chest – gosh, how his chest hurt! He'd be lucky if he hadn't broken some ribs. Trying to focus through the black spots on his sight, he blinked, shaking his head. Someone was holding him from behind, keeping him sitting. He looked, the pain in the ribs subsiding. 

            "Ho… Honda?" he gasped, his eyes widening. "Bu… but you… your back… and blood… and…"

            The dark-haired put a hand on his back, grimacing, and brought it back stained in red. "It wasn't that deep, actually," he said, his voice normal, if not a bit shaken. "I'd say the thing wanted to play with us before eating us or whatever it wanted to do."

            Jounouchi sat up by himself, looking happier than he had since the beginning of the whole ordeal. "So you're not going away anytime soon, right? And why are you looking at me like that? Where's the thing? When did it hit me?"

            He looked around, and Honda blinked at him, slightly surprised. 

            "You, you mean you don't remember?" Honda gaped at him. 

            "Well, I managed to avoid the thing and jump away carrying you, then the thing turned to me and growled and… and it pounced on me? I don't remember… where are you looking at?" he turned, seeing the thing get up the floor, slightly dazed, and sway a bit; it then turned its head towards them, its eyes flaring murderously. 

            "You… you'd better remember it quickly, Jou…" whispered Honda, sweating. 

            "**_GRRRRRRRRRRRRROWL!!_**" both jumped to each side, the claws meant to rip them cutting three deep lines on the mosaic floor. The two looked at each other at that moment, jumping as the creature yanked its claws from the floor—

            Two feet connected with each side of its "head", its eyes widening as both teens used the momentum to throw themselves away from its reach. Lifting dust as their feet dragged on the floor, they started running in circles around it, the confused beast trying to follow the movements of both at the same time, uselessly. 

            What it didn't know was that the two boys were used to face bigger guys; and, while they couldn't always win the fights, there were other things they could do together… 

            Honda jumped and ran up a wall, till his outstretched hand touched the handle of a torch; stretching the other hand while the momentum lasted, he grabbed another, and then fell back on the floor, on his feet. All this time the beast kept on looking at Jounouchi, that was running from side to side, driving its attention away from Honda; luckily for Honda, and unluckily for the blond boy, he was the only one it considered a threat. 

            Shooting a glance at Honda, Jounouchi stopped on his tracks, panting. The beast tensed – it assumed its prey had stopped to attack. It prepared its claws…

            Someone jumped on his head, and two torches were extinguished into his eyes. 

            In the moment he opened his jaws to cry, a third one was thrown into his throat. A foot kicked his chest with full-force, a fist punched his face with crushing strength.

            "Let's run – Honda!" Jounouchi screamed; he turned away from the beast, still scared but quite smug after shoving a torch into its mouth and hitting it two times. Honda was going to jump down from its head when he sensed a non-spasmic movement from the creature—

            "_JOUNOUCHI, WATCH O—!!_" he couldn't complete his sentence, as the beast jumped after Jounouchi's footsteps, throwing him on the floor in the process. 

            Honda could only watch as its claws descended on his friend…

            …that, with unbelievable luck, tripped and ended up with only six rips on the jacket. 

            "THE PUZZLE!!" Jounouchi screamed, reaching his hand out to the shining piece; it bounced to the side, away from both boy and beast. 

            A light bulb suddenly flickered on above Honda's head, and he staggered forward, trying to stand up from the place he had fallen and run at the same time. Jounouchi rolled to the side, avoiding being skewered by the claws, and looked around desperately, trying to localize the missing piece…

            Honda grabbed the piece in a jump, rolling on his back, and stopped with a knee on the floor. 

            "Jounouchi, DUCK!" he screamed as he threw the blinding spot of light and bowed on the floor; the sheer command of his voice was enough to make Jounouchi throw himself on the floor and cover his head with his arms, even though he'd rather know what the heck he was planning— 

            The piece seemed to explode in light as it hit the monster right on its forehead; both uncovered their heads to see the beast as it seemed to dissolve and transform into dust, inside the beam of light; a piercing and hollow cry filled the air, making it tremble painfully into their eardrums. 

            Suddenly, it was all over. The piece fell on the floor, bouncing, shimmering as lightly and innocently as it was before, and there was nothing left of the thing that attacked them – not even ashes. 

            Jounouchi picked the piece with shaking fingers, but it did nothing to him. Standing up slowly, he looked at Honda – that was also standing up –, his eyes questioning. 

            "I tried holding it before, when you were out," explained the dark-haired. "It almost burned my hand."

            He approached Jounouchi. The blond was looking intently at the piece; then he blinked, and started looking around worriedly. Slowly, though, the worry disappeared, and a little smile played on his lips. 

            "Let's go, Honda," he said, walking with large steps. "Yuugi is around here, somewhere!"

            Honda blinked, a bit surprised, but followed him anyway, wincing with each step. The cuts on his back weren't deep, but they were stinging, principally after all the running and sweating; he thought that the earlier they could find everyone, the earlier he could take care of himself. Approaching a wall, they found an opening towards another corridor; the piece seemed to shine more when Jounouchi waved it in front of the tunnel. Without thinking twice, they entered it. 

            The whole tunnel looked almost like a cave, stalactites and stalagmites all around, getting stuck on Jounouchi's shredded jacket and Honda's bloodied trench coat. Avoiding some of the stalagmites and rocks on the ground, they looked around, noticing that the light from the piece was getting stronger in a much quicker rate… 

            By the time they arrived at a double stone door, with the Eye of Horus carved on it, the piece was making the sand-colored walls shine as if under daylight; little crystals glittered on the walls, making the place look like a magic cave. 

            They stopped, almost solemnly, in front of the doors.

            "I bet Yuugi is right there!" Jounouchi exclaimed, a gigantic smile plastered on his face. 

            "Well, if he isn't, I swear I'll drop dead here and now," Honda crossed his arms, looking to the side bitterly. His back was killing him…

            Shoving the playfulness aside, both started pushing the heavy doors, light pouring from the cracks; slowly, the cracks got bigger, and bigger, and bigger… and then the doors were opened. 

            Golden light flowed from inside the room, bathing their bewildered faces and covering the tunnel behind them like a warm blanket. 

            In the center of the room, a small figure was slouched on its knees, a triangular form blazing a blinding light in front of it. The small figure lifted its head slowly, blond locks fluttering and waving with the movement…

            Yuugi's violet eyes locked with theirs. His eyes were hazy and opaque, but, still, he smiled sweetly at them – the same sweetness of always… 

            Long, thick black eyelashes batted as he blinked, almost as if trying to get sleep out of his eyes; he reached his two hands towards them, weakly, the smile still in his lips…

            "Jounouchi-kun…"

            His voice echoed eerily on the room; dazed, Jounouchi could only open the hand that held the piece. It was what he was asking for – that piece… 

            It floated from his hand, hovering towards Yuugi; the triangular shape in front of him seemed to blaze even more. Yuugi gently clasped his hands around the small spot of light that was the piece, and held the shining triangle with a hand…

            He clicked the piece into its place. 

            The whole word seemed to shine a blinding light, as the teens covered their eyes… 

~*~*~*~*~*~

            December 16, 2002: MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!! EVIL CLIFFIE!! THAT'S FOR WINGLEADER SORA JADE, SOULBONDED, ANYA AND THE LIKES!! UPDATE YOUR FICS ALREADY OR I'LL **SCREAM**!!

            The end of the chapter is kinda sloppy, but I wanted to update the fic soon. It's been quite long since a real chapter was out. Anyway, how did the fighting go? Is it too full of breaks? I kinda wanted to do something longer but ran out of ideas, so… oh, and for the impatient ones, next chapter will probably, and I stress **_PROBABLY_**, have Yami on it. Also, the Headmaster may finally come out too. It will depend on a number of variables, but it definitely won't take much longer – since the most important requirement, the puzzle, is complete. Oh, and Yami will be a bit different than how he's portrayed in 99% of the fics. Yeah, I kinda plan on making him a bit scarier than in the manga, and also _very_ disturbing; kinda like, uh… say, the vampires on Anne Rice's books. Yeah, a good example. Yami's gonna make Lestat run away barefoot!! WAHAHAHAHA, PH34R M3!!! On the other side, he'll have a nice side, too. So don't worry. Anyway, I had changed the genre to Mystery/Action/Adventure (or Supernatural/Action/Adventure, I don't remember), but I don't know if it works – should I put it back to Mystery/Supernatural? Because, although it's quite an adventure, the main thing here is the weird things happening around them. It's quite a slow fic, actually. You could give an opinion on the reviews. 

            And, Lily22, could you send me that email already?


	9. How to play with a little dwarf

Eye Gate Deep 09

**By Elanor Pam**

**"How to play with a little dwarf"**

            December 16, 2002: Began chappie ^___^ I guess this one will be funnier than the last ones – at least it was funny to write. Also, this will be the long-waited one where Mou Hitori No Yuugi makes his debut – at least I wish so, but it's been long since I last controlled anything on this fic. Oh, good old times… 

            January 10, 2003: Had to reinstall Office… it's a curse, I tell ya all! I'm cursed to have to reinstall Office countless times!! It's been just half a year since the last time!! Remember? I was writing the first chapter of EGD on the WordPad!

            February 11, 2003: Wai~~!! Office is finally back to its former self, block's gone… this chapter is definitely wrapped by today!! AAAND… I have the honor of introducing MOU HITORI NO YUUGI (the other Yuugi, to make it easier)!!

            **Disclaimer:** What is mine is mine. What isn't mine isn't mine. (Cowering in shame) That was sooooo lame… Oh, and Mortal Kombat isn't mine either.

**            Note: Don't know the slightest thing about concussions apart from "putting ice on the bump". Please forgive me for any stupid thing I write about it.**

            **BAD LANGUAGE WARNING. **

~*~*~*~*~*~

            The whole word seemed to shine a blinding light, as the teens covered their eyes… and suddenly everything was back to normal. 

            Yuugi held a weird golden pyramid between his hands, seeming completely normal and healthy, if not ecstatic – nah, he was ten times ecstatic, jumping to his feet and hopping around, turning around here and there sometimes, in a dance; all the time he sang, happily:

            "The-puzzle-is-complete, the-puzzle-is-complete, the-puzzle-is-complete…"

            He stopped, panting with the energy and joy he had, and threw the toy to the air, picking it back; his skin glowed with sweat, even though the only light that remained there, now that the puzzle was off, was the one coming from the floor. A big smile on his lips, he looked at the two baffled teens, unaware of their confusion. 

            "Thank you!! Thanks to you, I could complete the puzzle! I've been trying to put this together for years!! I've told you that, haven't I? You were so kind to bring the last piece to me, I thought I had lost it!!"

            None of them was brave enough to interrupt his little moment with questions, even though thousands of them were swimming through their heads; they should have know Yuugi enough, though – the little teen never let much pass his eyes unnoticed. He had pieced the impossible puzzle, after all. 

            "Anything wrong?" he asked, simply, hanging the puzzle on his neck. It even had a strap just for that, neat, uh?

            The two boys just looked at him, silent. Even if they tried, nothing would come out of their throats anyway. 

            Yuugi sighed, hanging his hands down tiredly. "Alright, just spit it. Something is bothering you, it's written all over your faces. No use acting in front of me, you know I won't give an Oscar to anybody."

            Honda moved his arms a little, trying to talk as his mouth opened and closed like a fish out of the water. Jounouchi shot him an odd look, but he knew he wouldn't do any better, so he said nothing. 

            "Er…" Honda's voice finally came out "Well, when we arrived, that triangle thing was glowing, and flying in front of you…"

            Yuugi looked at the pyramid hanging from his neck. "Was it?" his tone of voice was politely surprised.

            "Yeah… and the puzzle piece was shining all the way here, you know, and it floated to you when you called…" Honda was practically making knots on his fingers. "You know, that was… a bit weird… and your eyes were weird too…"

            "You didn't eat anything fallen on this floor, did you?" Yuugi looked at them, his eyes showing a mix of slight disbelief and a lot of worry. 

            Jounouchi would say "duh, cut it out already", but, noticing that Yuugi was being completely serious, he chose to say a meek:

            "…no." 

            Yuugi walked towards them, looking visibly more worried. "Do you remember eating anything covered with a weird green thing or a funny goo in the last twenty-four hours?"

            "Look, Yuugi," began Jounouchi, in a business tone "The only thing I remember eating in the last twenty-four hours was you grandpa's dinner, and it consisted of rice, olives, chicken and lemon juice. Alright that the chicken was covered with a funny goo, but it was tasty, and the lemon juice was green, but that means n—"

            Jounouchi was going to say "nothing", but was interrupted by Yuugi's exclamation:

            "_What?!_ The only thing you ate in twenty-four hours? You mean you didn't even have breakfast?!" Yuugi was sputtering, his developing voice sounding quite funny (low, then high, then low…) with the indignation. "What the heck are you doing here, you shouldn't have come!!"

            "Look who's talking…" grumbled Honda, looking to the side. Yuugi didn't listen, though, or at least didn't reply, as he was busy rummaging his backpack; crouched cutely with his back to them, his head was almost inside the oversized bag. 

            "I'm sure I had put it inside here…" they heard him mutter, and then he triumphantly jumped back on his feet, holding a chocolate bar high; it almost looked like Gustavo Kuerten (ß spelling?) holding the Rolland Garros (ß spelling?) Goblet. 

            He presented it to Jounouchi with a naturalness that felt completely out-of-place, considering their present situation; the only thing the blond could do was stare at it for a while, and slowly pick the candy. 

            "Is…" he stuttered "…is this for me?"

            "Of course!!" Yuugi sounded as if it was the most obvious thing on the world. "I'm sorry that's the only one I have. If I knew you hadn't eaten I'd bring more."

            Jounouchi was so moved he didn't even know what to say or do apart from looking at the smaller one with watering eyes. He had eaten two days worth of food in the dinner, but it had all gone away into the weird monster's face, so he was as empty as his father's bank account. Ripping the wrapping in a frenzy, the hazel-haired one shoved the whole bar into his mouth, unaware of Honda's pleading stare (that turned into one of bitter disappointment after it was all gone down his throat).

            "Is it good?" asked Yuugi, his voice full of hope. 

            "Hn-hm!" Jounouchi nodded like a happy child, munching under Honda's (now hateful) glare. He crumpled the wrapping and threw it on the floor. "I'm done!"

            "Let's get going, then," Yuugi closed his backpack, hanging it on a shoulder. "We have to find the others. They must be around here somewhere. Since you guys found me, it won't be very hard for three to find them."

            Yuugi passed between them effortlessly (even though the space was kind of narrow), walking out to the corridor; for a moment, the teens stood there, dumbly. Suddenly, they woke up.

            "Hey, wait, Yuugi," Honda hurried after the spike-haired "It's dark out…"

            "YOUCH!" a tripping sound echoed, followed by a noise like a sack of potatoes tumbling on the ground. 

            "…there," Honda finished, a bit too late. "And there are a lot of stalagmites."

            "Thanks for the advice," his little voice muttered between teeth, a bit muffled by the sound of cloth being rubbed. "I noticed the stalagmites when they almost impaled me. Now how did you walk in this place?"

            "We told you," Jounouchi shrugged, his shape visible against the faint light from the chamber behind him. "The piece was shining all the way here."

            There was a moment of silence, and then the rubbing sound began again. "I… I've fumbled with this puzzle more than half my life and it never made any weird thing… well, I always slept with it half-done, but piecing something like that is really tiring…" the rubbing sound stopped a little. "This last week has been so weird that it wouldn't be that surprising, but still…"

            The voice trailed when a faint light started to spread itself through the corridor, the shapes of the rocks and stalactites becoming clearer as the shimmer strengthened itself. In the center of the light, Yuugi's figure gaped at the puzzle, shining lightly on his chest, his hand still holding the shin he was rubbing just a moment before. 

            Slowly, Yuugi stood up, his hands reaching towards the puzzle but stopping in the way; between his hovering hands, the puzzle's light was becoming stronger and stronger – till he could clearly see the corridor as it stretched forward in the darkness. Still, it stayed in a soft level, as if trying not to hurt his eyes…

            He turned, surprise in his face, to his companions; Honda's face seemed to scream "I still don't believe this is happening", but Jounouchi flashed him a victorious smile. 

            "So…" he whispered, "it was really… it was…"

            They nodded. 

            "Then…" Yuugi stepped towards them, his shadow elongating behind him "What you said… about me…" he walked another step "…I don't remember… but… was it? Was it true?"

            Honda could only nod again, looking at the small, slightly scared teen in the center of the light; he wished he could say something more, but he wasn't very good with words, and also wasn't that intimate with Yuugi to begin with – he had no idea what kind of words would be better for him…

            He almost jumped when Jounouchi walked ahead with large steps. 

            "Look, Yuugi," the teen began, "don't let this eat you up. Feel anything weird?" Yuugi shook his head. "So, it's ok. In fact you look way better than you've had lately, sincerely! No freaky paleness anymore! No looking like undead anymore!!" Jou nudged the boy lightly, the old gigantic smile plastered on his face as always. "Also, we have a light. We wanted a light anyway, right? The flashlight ended up with your grandpa, I guess, so we'll have to live with this light here…" 

            Jou pointed to the puzzle hanging from Yuugi's neck, but, in Honda's eyes, it almost looked like he was pointing to Yuugi himself. Jou didn't seem to notice, though, as he gently prodded Yuugi forward. 

            "Okay, let's get going, now. Hey, Honda, move. I hope we don't have any more unpleasant surprises along the way, but I guess we won't. I guess."

            Honda smiled slightly when he saw how his friend handled the smaller one. Shaking his head, he started walking, following the twosome as they went. 

            '_Experienced, eh?_' 

            He quickened his pace. 

~~*~~*~~

            Sugoroku paused once more, trying to catch up to any stepping sound, but it was all in silence. Gulping, he resumed walking, trying to be as silent as possible.

            Then Anzu tripped and somehow took them both – very noisily – to the ground. 

            "Anzu?"

            No answer. 

            "Great…" he covered his eyes, feeling a cold hand wrap around his throat and chest. "She's dying. Yuugi'll survive out of anti-depressive pills for the rest of his life…"

            "…hello?"

            He lifted his head, hand poised to throw the recently found shoe onto whatever was it… 

            Its owner.

            Suzuki-sensei, her other shoe on her hand (poised mostly like him), blinked at him. She then looked at her student, sprawled on the floor with blood trailing down her temple. 

            "What happened?" she asked (stupidly, in Sugoroku's opinion), kneeling by her student's side. She rolled Anzu on her back and, picking Sugoroku's flashlight without even asking, proceeded to examine the girl's eyes and bump. 

            "She has a bad concussion…" Suzuki concluded, much to the (not big of a) surprise of Sugoroku. "No doctor available around, though… if only there was some ice around here somewhere!" She sighed. 

            "ICE!!" Sugoroku would have whacked his head against the cave's wall if it were near enough. "I must be really getting old!! Crap-crap-crap…"

            He opened his backpack, grabbing four little plastic bottles. Handing one of them to Suzuki, he begun telling:

            "I had put some water to freeze for when we came here. I _completely_ forgot about it, can you believe?"

            Suzuki lifted her eyebrow at his comment, and opened the bottle, spilling the little water that had melted on the bump. After that, she unceremoniously hit the ground with the bottle, using all her might – the bottle broke, freeing the ice (and breaking it, too); taking a handkerchief from a pocket somewhere, she wrapped the ice with it, putting it against the bump. 

            "That'll have to do," she said. "Now that we're over with what was important, care to tell me what were four students doing out of bed at such a time? And, from what you told me, it was already planned. And you invaded property, if you don't know."

            Sugoroku didn't let himself be intimidated. 

            "Well, I bet you did, too, and probably the Headmaster as well. And don't forget you were carrying a gun." He shifted on the floor. "My grandson hadn't been feeling well after he came in contact with a certain tile…" '_Quite literally_', he added to himself. 

            "Hm, that changes things a bit," she shrugged, surprising the old man slightly. "So you came to investigate what could have done it, right?"

            "Well, it wasn't all," Sugoroku looked to the unconscious girl, lying by his side. "One of his friends noticed something on the tile. He said it was like scratches forming an eye. Later on, the others noticed as well… also, there was a big mess with a ghost they saw, weird dreams, and…" he breathed in deeply. He had almost touched into a point that was better off in secret – the puzzle. 

            "…and?" she asked, lifting her eyebrow again. 

            He motioned a bit with his hand, and them let it drop limp by his side. He sighed, tiredly. "I'm an Expert in Egyptian history, you know. When they described the eye for me, I thought it looked like the Eye of Horus… it didn't matter that much to me on the beginning, since I was mostly worried about Yuugi, but Yuugi is… he's stubborn, darn. When his friends decided they should come and investigate, he wanted to come too and nothing would change his mind."

            The story was convincing enough, even though it was a bit different from the real story.  

            "I understand," Suzuki changed the position of the compress on Anzu's head. "But I'd say you knew it wasn't anything normal or else you wouldn't have believed them. I know I wouldn't, if I was a newcomer in this."

            Sugoroku kept his silence for a moment, and then chuckled. "You're right… I've traveled the whole world, seen interesting things." He sighed. "It was mostly in the interest of a gamer looking for challenges, but after an… occasion… I begun to ask myself 'How were these people? Why did they build all this? What's the truth behind these legends?'… These questions just would never die. I entered University – later than my parents would have liked – and graduated and mastered in Archeology. As an archeologist… I've seen even more incredible things in my life. So no, this isn't surprising for me in the sense it should have been. Unexpected, yes, but I'm used to underground passages…" He looked at her. "Your time, now. Why did you come?"

            Suzuki shifted the compress again, her face turning into a bitter expression. "Some old problems to solve with Mr. All Mighty Headmaster, you know. My father… he…" she gulped. "Sorry, I'm really not in the mood to talk about it. But you'll probably know when this all ends. _If_ this ever ends."

            She wiped some of the water and blood from Anzu's wound. It wasn't bleeding anymore, and the compress seemed to be washing the dried blood away; it didn't look as bad as before. 

            "Is she going to be ok?" Sugoroku asked, even though he knew the woman was doing what was possible. 

            "I hope so!" she retorted, her voice high. "I'm no doctor; if I know what I'm doing, it's because I've been in times like these before. Look, don't blame me if this makes no eff… she's moving."

            "Uh?" Sugoroku lifted his head. 

            "She's moving, look. She's waking up."

            In fact, she was. Anzu moved a hand towards her head, moaning, but touched Suzuki's arm on the way… she opened her eyes. 

            "Su… Suzuki-sensei?"

            "Psssst…" she whispered, warmly, her face kind (Sugoroku was quite impressed with the transformation; suddenly she looked like a woman… oh, wait. She _was_ a woman.). "It's ok. Be still. You're hurt."

            "…have you found the others? …is Yuugi still sick?" Anzu asked, blinking in the flashlight's light.

            Suzuki shot a glance at Sugoroku, then answered with the same soothing voice. "No, dear, none of them are here yet… But don't worry about it now. Just rest."

            The girl sighed, and suddenly her voice sounded very normal. "How long do I have to stay with this compress?"

            "Until the swelling diminishes, at least," Suzuki knew very well that the girl wouldn't admit more than that. She checked the bump. "It'll take some time…"

            They were surprised when Anzu started moving, taking her jacket out. The girl grabbed the compress, putting it in place, then put the jacket over her head like a hood…

            Sitting up carefully, ignoring their protests, she tied the sleeves of the jacket behind her head. She got up, slightly dizzy; she knew she should be lying down, but that wasn't time to rest. 

            Anzu turned to them, the jacket on her head looking a lot like those Egyptian hoods; Sugoroku chuckled slightly at the thought. Suzuki, though, was of the opinion that she looked like a rebelled boy. 

            "This is no time to lie around," she said, her voice serious and slightly commanding. "Let's find them."

            She turned, picking the flashlight from the floor with a calculated kick, and walked away, without waiting for them.

            "Th… that girl…" Suzuki blinked. "She's…"

            "She's Yuugi's oldest friend," Sugoroku chuckled, picking the remaining bottles from the floor and drinking a bit from one of them. "They share some… traits… but she has to be the most fierce of the two. Want some water?"

            He handed her one of the bottles, hurrying towards the girl's retreating form. Suzuki thought for some time, drank a bit from the bottle, and walked towards them, calmly. 

            Things were getting interesting, in a rather sickening way… 

~~*~~*~~

            Haruno lifted the torch high, checking out her surroundings. The light revealed high stonewalls, full of carvings, and torches waiting to be set alight; half-broken statues held pyres around a small stand, which held a shrine. Behind it, a slightly damaged tablet stood, caked with dried blood, the writings barely legible.

            She smiled bitterly. She had found it, now that it wasn't even needed. 

            '_If I were still sticking to my original plan, this would be the key piece of the puzzle… and **he** would have to be brought here too. Then the ceremony would begin… then it would be over, I wouldn't be needed anymore, I'd be able to go to my sister in peace… but now… my usefulness was gone earlier than I thought…_'

            On that moment, enormous magic flickered into existence, to fade and conceal itself in a second. 

            A tear slid down her face. 

            '_Yeah… my usefulness… burned itself out till the last crisp. But they deserve at least an explanation, right? At least an explanation…_'

            She lighted the torches and pyres, slowly, taking her time with each one. 

            '_This is a horrible feeling… the feeling of being useless… of having no use… I completed my mission, but I feel so empty… after all, I did some pretty nasty things, didn't I? Was it worth?_'

            She stopped for a moment, as she lighted the last pyre. 

            '_It was. It was worth everything. And I'd do it again without hesitation._'

            She threw the torch she had brought on the floor, and the fire died. Now the room was as bright as the day, shadows dancing all around the walls, mocking, laughing, crying. She paid them no heed, as she examined the torches on the wall with more attention. 

            She smiled bitterly again as she noticed the smell coming from the walls. 

            "So… these torches never quite burn till the end, right? Fine with me… fine…"

            She picked her skirt and walked to the middle of the room, elegantly and graciously. She didn't look like a small, thin woman anymore. She looked like royalty. 

~~*~~*~~

            "Gee… when is this ever going to end?" Jou looked around again, seeing only the same walls as always. 

            Now they were going back the way they had come, or at least that had been their intention; the corridors were getting wider and better cared, but the "arena" they had fought in simply wasn't there. Somehow, the whole place changed. 

            "I'd say we picked the wrong turn, if there was any turn to pick wrong…" Honda sighed. "Well, back then we did have the piece to guide us, so maybe we didn't notice some sideway?

            "Hm…" Jou stopped, biting his thumbnail. Honda followed the example, without really noticing. 

            Yuugi looked from one to the other, blinking. He looked down at the puzzle on his chest. 

            "Hey, hey," he whispered, nudging the golden pendant slightly. "Can you show us the way out?" he blinked again, confused. "What the heck am I doing…"

            Jou started pounding his head with a fist. "Crap, no ideas!!"

            "Well…" started Yuugi, attracting their attention "The puzzle pointed the way when it was being held by you, right? Why don't you try again?" 

            Yuugi took the puzzle out and handed it towards the blond boy, that picked it by the cord as if it were a poisonous snake. Nothing happened. 

            "He, hello?" asked Jou, shaking it to see if it worked. He nudged the puzzle. 

            Its light went off. 

            "**_WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!_**"

            Assorted bumping and running noises went on till the light came back, Yuugi holding the puzzle. Jou was frozen in the same position, empty hand still on the air. 

            "It seems your puzzle doesn't work for anybody…" Honda commented. 

            "Tricksters, aren't we?" Yuugi glared at the toy reproachfully, as if it were a kid. Jou could have sworn it grinned back (even without a mouth), but it was understandable to see things in his state of mind. __

            Suddenly, walking steps echoed through the walls. They looked around, alarmed, but no one was there as far as they could see. 

            "He, hello?" asked Honda. By his side, Jounouchi was getting a nice vanilla hue in the lips, as his shoulders seemed to shrink to the floor under their own weight.

            The steps got louder and louder, then stopped. And, to their surprise, the wall opened, giving way to the Principal. 

            The man blinked at them, slightly surprised; a tiny fireball floated by his side, providing light for him. A smirk crossed his lips, as he closed the passageway behind him, and the secret door mingled perfectly with the cave walls. 

            "The… the headmaster?!" Yuugi whispered, chin dropping. 

            Jou's eyes seemed to be popping out of their sockets, as his face lost every healthy color. 

            The man looked at them and grinned, biting the butt of a burnt cigar. "Look who's here… the party-poopers. Are you satisfied with the mess you caused?"

            "A-ah…" none of the three knew what to say or do. Maybe they should turn and run, but they were all glued to the floor.

            "Well, it seems you are having fun…" he stated, in a casual tone, walking towards them. "So, what did you find? Maybe a pit of alligators?"

            It was then that he noticed where _their_ light was coming from. 

            "We… found a monster whose knees bended to the wrong side," stuttered Jounouchi, his eyes glued in the little floating fireball, while Honda elbowed him in the ribs. Yuugi, meanwhile, cringed under the man's intense gaze; for some reason, it unnerved him to the core, as if the man's head could stretch all the way over and bit him… 

            '_Like a Fatality from Mortal Kombat… geh!! This ain't the time to think about games!_'

            Suddenly, the man seemed to process Jounouchi's stupid comment, and turned to him. "A beast, you say? That was bad, guys… lucky you for escaping alive… or not, since you met _me_." He walked towards Yuugi, still smirking, the butt of the cigar still hanging from his mouth. "If you hadn't met _me_, your little friend would have had a better chance of going home with _this_ hanging from his neck."

            He reached out a hand towards the panicked Yuugi's chest, fingering the strap of the puzzle almost as if it was a fine piece of glass artwork; immediately, the shaken boy was pulled out of his reach, and he saw his prize shielded behind two terrified, but determined, students. 

            "You… you… you fucking hypocrite, two-faces, you…" Jounouchi managed to gather enough courage to talk, but his boiling indignation made it difficult to get his voice out; his eyes reflected the fireball strangely. He gathered more air, his voice barely audible. "You… always… with Yuugi… and the others… you… you…!!" he stepped ahead, his anger finally getting the best of him. "**_YOU ALMOST EXPELLED ME, YOU FUCKING SHIT!!_**" 

            His voice echoed through the walls, as he panted. "You!! The _Mister Strictness_, headmaster of a "model school", you… you, always so worried with little students like Yuugi, or Hanasaki, or… or…" his voice got hoarse, and he moved his hands about in despair. "And "rebelled students" like me. You were ALWAYS warning me that you'd expel me if I kept on misbehaving and NOW YOU'RE HERE!! YOU'RE HERE SCARING YUUGI, SCARING ME, SCARING _US_!! **_SCORNING US!! _**LOOKING AT US WITH THOSE MAD EYES!! Reaching out that hand like a claw as if to rip and shred and…"

            His voice weakened and refused to come out; his whole body trembled, as he covered his mouth with a shaking hand, between sobs. 

            All through the outburst, the man they called "Headmaster" hadn't flinched or been affected at all. Or rather, he seemed quite amused. 

            So amused that he laughed. 

            "This is a surprise…" he chucked. "I never thought I'd receive some kind of regard from you. So you considered me your "stepfather" figure? Or was I just someone who deserved some respect?" Yuugi glanced at Jou, surprised, while Honda reached out a hand to his friend's shoulder and squeezed it, flinching when the scratches at his back complained; he ignored the pain. He knew very well what went through his pal's head, and knew that it all stung at his soul much more than those scratches.

            He squeezed his other hand in a quivering fist. 

            "Who may know," continued the Headmaster, without paying them attention. "Well, I'm sorry for letting you down like this, Katsuya Jounouchi-kun, but I won't throw away twenty years of plans for a bad student…"

            _BAN_

            The Headmaster fell backwards, a hand touching his cheek gingerly; the fireball died. His cigar's butt lost itself on the floor. Surprise was written all over his face. 

            Yuugi covered his mouth with both hands, and Jounouchi almost let the hand that covered his drop; Honda cracked his knuckles. 

            His eyes seemed to burn in the darkness. 

            ""Stepfather figure"? Don't make me laugh…" Honda's voice seemed to crawl on the silence; he looked at the now furious form on the ground, his chin lifted scornfully, his eyes menacingly covered with shadows. "Jounouchi's standards for a father are too high for a piece of crap like you. He just thought you were serious in your work, something that he respects. He trusted you, to the point of cooking out a suicide scheme to uncover the guy that almost killed a bunch of students… having you as primary witness. _Of course_ he's disappointed. Me too, actually. And we deal with disappointment in different ways."

            He grabbed the man by the tie. "You'll discover that having Jou disappointed at you is a bit more healthier. And, you know, I've longed to smash your face open for a hella time… the way you look at Jou and at boys like Yuugi or Hanasaki is far _too_ weird for my tastes…"

            With no second thoughts, the fist descended heavily towards his face. 

            With a small shriek, Yuugi covered his eyes; light seemed to blink through his hands's flesh and his closed eyelids. 

            Curious, and hearing just some muffled thumping noises, he uncovered his face, hopeful. 

            Just to see Jounouchi and Honda sprawled on the ground, eyes wide, senseless. 

            He could barely breath. 

            "J… Jounouchi-kun?" his voice trembled. "Honda-kun?"

            "Pff…" Yuugi couldn't lift his head to face the scornful face of his school's headmaster, so horribly hypnotizing was the image of his two friends on the ground, looking d— no, no, not that. Not _that_. 

            "What's up, Yuugi Mutou-kun?" he enunciated his student's full name, disdainfully. He got up, dusting his pants and fixing his tie. "I know. The two scoundrels that suddenly decided to become your bodyguards aren't really in position to save your hide, am I right? And you're afraid. Deathly afraid…" the man looked at Yuugi's small shaking form, his eyes shining eerily.

            "I…" Yuugi trembled, his eyes filling up with tears, still glued on his friend's motionless forms. "I…"

            "And, even covering your eyes, you must have noticed it. Right? My _hex_. It should have knocked you out like it did with those two, but… your pendant must have prevented it from doing so. Do you understand now why it interested me so much?" 

            "My… pendant?" Yuugi's head hung lower as he looked to the pyramid at his chest, tears falling, reflecting the light from the puzzle. "It…"

            The headmaster couldn't be more pleased with a show of weakness. "It'd make a bunch of people like me jump on each other's throat, just to get it." He snorted, mockingly. "I could say that I'd bring your two lackeys back in exchange for it…"

            "You would?" Yuugi's trembling voice sounded hopeful, as he lifted his head to look at the man. 

            "Nah, what's the fun in that – I wouldn't bring them anyway. I could also throw a similar, stronger spell on you and take it with no problem," Yuugi stepped behind, lifting an arm "but that's boring, and I would spend valuable energy… when I can just take it out of your neck, right?" 

            The Headmaster walked towards the quivering boy, calmly, grinning unpleasantly. 

            "You're too afraid to fight back… and leaving you in the dark with two useless rag dolls seems to be a much better way to torture your sweet, delicate mental health. _Or…_ there _are_ things I can do with you, but I don't have time now, and I don't think there's a better way to play with a little dwarf…"

            The little dwarf smiled enticingly, lowering his eyelashes, all fear wiped from his face. 

            "Gotta try to make sure, don't you think?" his voice was calm and controlled, almost musical.

~*~*~*~*~*~

            February 11, 2003: I know. The cliffie there is almost like asking the readers "hey, come out and kill me!" Well, what to do. Hate me. Kill me. Or wait for the next chapter.

            But you see? I told you it'd be finished today!! I woke up in a roll! Anyway, here's Yami Yuugi, as you guys have screamed to see. I hope you'll like him… 

            By the way, next chapter is the one I expect to receive some nasty flames or the whatnot. Yami is going to show himself and, as I've stated lots of times, HE IS DISTURBING. Try to picture everything in your mind as you read. He has this deadly charm (oh! And he has Yuugi's thin and delicate appearance. No changes in appearance [apart from the bangs], only in behavior). Now imagine him blinking slowly and seductively. Yeah, with Yuugi's body (but his well-known sharp eyes). Now imagine him talking. With a trained, controlled, musical voice that seems to drown your own – either because you're deathly afraid or just swooning. If you've seen manga Yuugi, you know he walks with stiff shoulders and bent knees. Now imagine him relaxed, standing elegantly like… like a model, I dunno (Giselle Bündchen, haha!! I kill myself…). So he's a few centimeters taller, but I repeat, NO PHYSICAL CHANGES APART FROM THE BANGS, ONLY BEHAVIOR CHANGES. 

            **Important note:** As you guys should know, the Games of Darkness are supposed to bring out the worse there is in a person; and the Headmaster is… hm, his worse _is_ the worst. He's very sick and perverted, I'm warning you. The descriptions of Yuugi's actions are almost all in the Principal's POV (it'll be obvious when it's not), so be prepared for very disturbing content. I'm going all out next chapter, without toning down anything. So be ready to throw in anything on the reviews. (The other Yuugi's first Game will be quite scary…) I think next chapter might be rated R or maybe NC-17… tell me what you think about it, ok?

            And, although this fic is NOT YAOI, I think some yaoi fans might like next chapter. Also, the Headmaster's thoughts on the matter don't help any. Well, you'll se for yourself. 

            Also, I've opened a group at yahoo for the ones who want to know when will the next update be. Update notes, excuses for not updating after two months and general discussion will be sent through the ML. The addresses are below:

YGOundergroundml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com - to subscribe

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/YGOundergroundml/ - the main page. Nothing there yet. 

            Well, that's it.


	10. Bloodied Doll

Eye Gate Deep 09

**By Elanor Pam**

**"Bloodied Doll"**

            February 11, 2003: Began chappie. I'm starting to get scared at myself.

            March 10, 2003: Hey, today was my first day at University. I also met a lot of crazy anime loonies like me. Of course, I'm doing Japanese!! 

            March 31, 2003: 21 days after last time, I write barely a page but more info about this Yuugiverse than in any other chapter as far as I remember! Cheers!!

            **Disclaimer:** YGO isn't mine, as much as I grieve. Oh, and this chapter isn't suitable for weak stomachs, be warned.

            **WARNING: IMPLIED (what am I saying? It's all but screamed) PEDOPHILE THOUGHTS. From now on, this fic is officially R-rated. **

~*~*~*~*~*~

            It was as if another person was standing in front of him. 

            The headmaster stopped in his tracks, surprised. That reaction was so sudden, so out of place – considering the boy's well-known sweet and gullible nature, that had made him a preferential target in the school… he should know! The humble, frail boy that always entered his room looking towards the floor, and looked into his eyes before exiting the room, making him nervous… 

            The boy that always walked with his knees bent, as if waiting to crouch should a fist come down on him; always with his shoulders stiff, as if frozen in the middle of a flinch… 

            Now he stood proudly, shoulders set and legs stretched; that was the first time he had noticed the boy's real height and appearance. He was slim, with delicate hands coming out of his dark jacket, and slender legs; his feet seemed to barely touch the floor. His blond bangs seemed electrified, more than the normal; the tearstains still lined his light bronze cheeks, the trails shimmering against the light – but his eyes were sharp, daring and… _disdainful_. 

            That made his anger stir – _he_ was the only one with the right to be disdainful there. That was just some little boy that also happened to be a two-faced bastard like him. He had no right to scorn when he should be the one being scorned!

            "You—" 

            Yuugi blinked slowly, eerily, his thick black eyelashes standing out against the white of his eyes; the small, enticing smile still adorned his features. It made something like an ice cube slide down his spine, making him shudder, although he could not be sure if the reason was fear; the petite boy was motionless, frozen in the same position, and no muscle, not even on his face, seemed to have moved when he blinked. He couldn't help but think about dolls – delicate, immobile, hard… some of them would only move their eyelids, blinking eerily at their owners… their stone-like faces never changing, always frozen in a perpetual, enticing, inviting smile…

            The man gave a – nervous – smile of his own. "Looking confident, eh? You shouldn't be…"

            "You're so pale…" sang the boy, his developing voice getting lower in scale towards the end of the statement. Yuugi noticed it, and chuckled at himself; blinking once again, he leaned slightly towards his foe, in a manner that seemed, for him, to be at the same time graceful and extremely menacing. "You shouldn't be…" 

            '_AARGH!!_' the man gritted his teeth. The boy had blinked – oh, he hated those violet eyes already, they made his knees weak. He had to make sure to claw them out very painfully. In fact, he hated his whole body language, the way he stood like a bronze glossy ballerina statue with the shining pyramid seeming to center its shimmer around him; he seemed able to melt within the twilight around him at anytime, without effort… 

            "After all," the boy kept on saying, his voice spreading around him like water "I'm just a helpless, scared boy… and it's very easy to go and take what you want from a scared boy. When the boy isn't scared, well, that's another thing…" he crossed his arms, lifting his head and looking at his foe as if the Headmaster was a little boy waving a wooden sword. 

            The headmaster growled. _Take what you want_ seemed to echo inside his head, bringing "sensations" all over his body. He gritted his teeth more, squeezing his hands in fists. "Do you think I'm playing?" he muttered, through his teeth. 

            "You said it yourself," Yuugi closed his eyes, calmly. "You said '_I don't think there's a better way to play with a little dwarf_'. But I know of a good game…" 

            The boy he thought he knew lifted his eyelids gently, violet hypnotizing orbs slowly revealing themselves to the faint light; his lips slowly parted, reflecting the light as if, instead of flesh, they were made of peach. 

            It was worse than him blinking. It was as if he was inviting all living beings around to a painful sweet death. And, comparing him to the innocent boy he seemed to be a minute before made that effect even stronger – a painful sweet death, by the hands of a petite angel of innocence…

            It was hard to deny that. And he had to stop thinking about "hard". 

            The headmaster shuddered again at the thought, and shook his head to clear his thoughts. '_Don't look into those eyes… don't look AT those eyes… they scramble your thoughts…_'

            '_Scramble._'

            His eyes traveled to the shining puzzle, hanging under the boy's crossed arms. Trying not to look underneath that, he looked at his watch, remembering then that he had lost it. He heard the boy chuckle at that, and tried to subdue his voice's effect on him. 

            '_The puzzle has powers; I know it from Suzuharu's old archives. I guess the magic that seemed to stick in Yuugi's hand's skin came from it…_' he fought the urge to glance at the little doll in front of him, and tried to recall everything he knew about the Puzzle. '_One of seven, right… and they give "The power and knowledge of Darkness"…_'

            "That puzzle," he started "Did you put it together?"

            "You want it, right?" Yuugi retorted, bluntly, wearing that same smile. He took it off his neck by the strap, making it swing slowly to the sides, in front of him. "I'll hand it to you… if you win the game. But if you lose, Jounouchi-kun and Honda-kun are to get back to normal – and I'll give you the punishment I see fit." The boy blinked eerily again, the puzzle still swinging hypnotically in front of his peach-skinned face. "Do you accept?"

            The man resisted the urge to run and bite that face. He had to wonder if the boy was doing that on purpose or if it was all the result of his overworking imagination. He loosened his tie, feeling his clothes stick on him with sweat, and it made him shudder again; his skin was getting oversensitive. He mourned the loss of his cigar-butt; chewing on it always calmed his urges. 

            Feeling very dumb, he searched inside his pockets with trembling hands and picked his cigar-case, wondering why the heck he had forgotten about it. He clicked his lighter, but it didn't work. Cussing, he threw it on the ground, putting the cigar in his mouth and chewing on it anyway. 

            He glanced again at the boy, that hadn't moved an inch. The petite thing only looked at him, his eyes spearing at his soul as if they were able to make him drop dead on the spot, the puzzle still swinging, marking the seconds that passed. His skin absorbed the swinging light like velvet, his shadow projecting itself around him and swinging to the opposite sides. His face also seemed to melt and form itself from the moving shadows, but his eyes seemed to remain – eyes sharper than daggers. He was very serious, and looked at him with distrust. 

            Nope, the boy had no idea what he was doing. He didn't know what that cool, ice-carved look was doing to his foe. The principal _really_ liked children; they never knew what they did to him…

            "About this game," the man's voice was slightly husky, and he coughed to mask it "before I decide to play or not, can I know what it's about?"

            "You mean rules and bets?" he twisted his wrist, the strap of the puzzle coiling around his arm like a snake. "The game is hide-and-seek. Always so easy to understand and perform. And you have to admit you have an advantage, since you have longer legs…"

            Hide-and-seek. That boy really wanted him to stop thinking straight. He looked towards his student's legs, with the intention of measuring them, but ended up only noticing how the material wrapped up those slender forms… his eyes traveled up, and he caught himself in a staring contest against the buckle of his belt. 

            "The rules—" the boy kept on, his musical voice with a hint of death-warning "are: I'll hold the puzzle like this," he lifted his arm, his dark flannel jacket elusively revealing the form of a slim arm, and let the strap of the puzzle uncoil from his arm, making the pendant hang again "and you'll have to grab it. My purpose is keeping you away from your prize. The light will have to be your own; I'm going to hide in the dark. You win when you take the prize from me."

            "And you…?" the Principal squeaked weakly, wiping a bead of sweat that was trailing distractingly down his neck. 

            "Me what?" asked Yuugi, calmly, his lids lowered, that same unnerving smile on his lips and the same position. 

            The Principal breathed deeply, wiping more sweat. "I win when I take the puzzle. Then there must be a rule that will make you the winner…"

            "Since you seemed to know some magic, I thought it would be obvious to you," he said, the same expression finely polished on his face; his lips seemed to move without moving any other muscle on his face. "I win when you lose yourself and become unable to play. Because this is a game of darkness, to which we are both being subjected, and it has already begun…"

            "So," the Headmaster wheezed, taking out his sweaty tie and throwing it on the ground "It has already affected me, right? I confess I don't know much about games of darkness…" he licked the sweat around his lips with a smile, finally letting his cigar drop "but it seems to have made my skin get oversensitive…"

            Yuugi didn't seem to listen to the comment, as he started unbuttoning his flannel jacket with all the serenity and coolness of the world. The headmaster started walking towards him in a weird way, his eyes wide and demented, a mad grin on his lips, showing yellowed teeth. 

            "So… if the game of darkness has already begun… do I get to grab my _prize_ NOW?" 

            He pounced at the little doll with all the speed he could gather – to have a sudden meeting with darkness. 

            He felt something flat like a small foot hit him squarely in the nose.

            "**_WHA~~?!_**" 

            "_The game has already begun…_" echoed the musical, enchanting voice, making the air waver and suffocate him. 

            He lifted his hand and summoned a fireball, but still there was something covering his eyesight. Touching his face, his hand came in contact with flannel. 

            "…" he held the jacket, blinking. He couldn't imagine how the boy had managed to take out his jacket while still holding the puzzle, but shrugged it off, letting the cloth drop to the ground. "So the game begins…"

            He looked around, his eyes wide and bloodshot. 

~~*~~*~~

            '_I really never liked the way he looked at my body._'

            Yuugi hugged his arms, breathing silently in the darkness; the cave was chilly, and he had to take off his jacket in a hurry. He threw the adult another withering glare. He had doubted the man's intentions, but didn't imagine he had _that_ in mind. 

            '_He looked at me as if I was a sheep and he was the wolf… the Game of Darkness had already affected him badly._' He watched as the man ran towards his opposite side, his fireball following him. '_The Game of Darkness brings out and strengthens a person's most striking traits, be them "gifts" or "flaws"… unfortunately, most people seem to have only striking flaws…_'

            If he had a choice, he'd avoid playing hide-and-seek, principally because his adversary seemed to consider it some kind of foreplay; but, since he didn't have any other material to work with, he had to take the risk – that or leaving his friends vegetating forever, an unacceptable option. 

            He took a moment to search his memory for any rumor or newspaper article about "The Headmaster of Domino High School" and bad actions with students, but couldn't remember anything. The man seemed to behave well in front of the public, had enough influence to muffle denunciations, and was probably very secretive of whatever he did. He searched more for schoolmates that had mysteriously transferred, but it was the same – most of the ones he had gotten to hear about had moved to other cities and all those normal reasons. The only abnormal case was one boy whose parents had won the lottery, so they transferred him to a very expensive school for spoiled brats. But, still, he always looked at the students with weird eyes, chewing his cigar, and seemed to like it when they cringed… he also seemed to enjoy threatening Jounouchi with the working license…

            He heard steps nearing him, and tensed his legs for a jump.

            "There you are, little thing…" a voice hissed, a few meters away.

~~*~~*~~

            The man grabbed madly at the silhouette ahead of him, without feeling the saliva trailing down his jaw; all his skin throbbed, aching for the touch of that velvet doll… 

            He slammed painfully against the cave wall, his fireball disappearing in a puff. Behind him, soft tapping sounds showed that his little doll was jumping away from his reach, farther into the surrounding darkness. 

            Forgetting the pounding in his head, he turned, staggering as he ran towards the sound. 

            "Don't ruuuuuun…" he moaned, more drool streaming down his jawbone from the same demented grin. "It almost looooooks… like you dun' wanna… be _CAUGHT_!!"

            As he raised a hand, the darkness suddenly jumped back from the enormous flame he evoked, the red light revealing stony walls, spear-like stalactites… and a flash of golden. 

            Caught in mid-jump, his prey could only look back at him, the puzzle dangling from the strap, held between his thin fingers…

            The hunter jumped after the dancing gold, reaching out a sweaty hand… 

            …and grasped the arm that held it. 

            The boy's eyes widened, and the hunter's sick grin did the same; abruptly, his vision flickered, and the arm he held now belonged to a scared black-haired girl, her eyes panicked and angry behind glasses…

            Multiple things stabbed into his hand, and the arm he held didn't feel soft anymore. His grin disappeared with the surprise, and he didn't notice he was still mid-air until he fell on the ground, awkwardly, twisting a leg in the process. 

            He kneeled and looked at what he held in his hand – a bronze doll arm, covered with spikes and, now, his blood.

            "_Looks like your prize has changed, right?_" the alluring voice resounded, seemingly from all sides. "_It's not the puzzle anymore… well, too bad…_" A snap of fingers was heard, and, in front of the flabbergasted eyes of the Headmaster, all secret passageways were opened. Above, by the sides, on the ground, it looked like the cave was full of holes yawning to the Nothingness.

            He felt the ground tremble under his knees. Looking around, he gaped as all walls twisted and turned in corners and stairs… 

            "_The change in the rules implies change in environment,_" explained the soft voice; the sounds seemed to echo magically in his eardrums. "_Since the prize quit being the puzzle and became…_"

            Small, soft arms encircled his shoulders, the hands reaching till his collarbone and touching his neck lightly; a warm, smooth body pressed itself against his back, while the point of the puzzle stabbed the base of his backbone painfully; he felt a soft breath tingle in his ear, as that enticing voice whispered:

            "…me."

            He paled, and had all reasons to do so. 

            After a second, bronze spikes pierced his skin. 

~~*~~*~~

            Suzuki blinked, looking to the sides, then looked back at her companions. They hadn't noticed her movement. 

            She sighed quietly in relief. There was no use in worrying them. But she couldn't help the strange feeling she had…

            "Suzuki-sensei…?" Anzu asked, softly, her eyes shimmering, reflecting the light she held. "You seem to know something about this place, right?"

            "About this place…" Suzuki stopped for a moment, surprised with the sudden question, and then widened her steps, catching up with the girl. Thinking for a few seconds, she decided her student deserved some truth. "Sincerely, I'm as surprised as you are. You don't get to be transported to some weird caves everyday… but I think – no, I'm sure it has something to do with the Memory Keepers."

            Sugoroku inhaled, but said nothing. Suzuki went on, oblivious, but Anzu glanced at him slightly.

            "The 'Memory Keepers' are supposed to be spread throughout the whole planet, guarding the knowledge of the lost civilizations. For some time, I believed that they were mostly scientists, archeologists, researchers – these kind of… normal people. My… father… was one that, still nowadays, I'd call a 'memory keeper'. He was very interested in lost civilizations. He made a lot of effort to gather more information on them. But my father isn't the issue here."

            Her gaze traveled on the surface of one of the walls, melancholically. "It looks like there is something more involved in this Memory-Keeping thing. From what happened about half-hour ago, we can only arrive at three conclusions: or we are dealing with some sort of magical power, or it's some kind of very, very advanced technology."

            "And the third conclusion?" Anzu blinked, awed by the cool and calculating woman by her side.

            Suzuki looked coldly ahead.

            "…both."

            Anzu absorbed the information quietly, looking at the light beam from the flashlight. She slowed the pace almost imperceptibly, trying not to strain herself too much – her head was beginning to throb and she didn't want to be kept out of things. 

            The girl lifted her head again. "Is there any more information to share with us, sensei?" she asked, "About the memory keepers or what the headmaster wants?"

            Suzuki seemed to flinch at the mention of the Headmaster. 

            "Well, I won't be the one to choke a question when I'm always asking my students to discuss matters…" she begun, smiling somewhat bitterly. "The memory keepers… as I said, they seem to be everywhere. But, at the same time, they can't be found anywhere _officially_. That's kind of hard to explain…"

            She paused, but, as none of them tried to break the silence, she went on. 

            "There are some people who search for these Memory Keepers. Some of them just want… info. Researchers. Others are looking for their secrets. You know, the magic or technology I told you about. Others are just doing that for the sheer adventure, others want legendary treasures, others search them for political reasons – you know, they act in a certain area, the big guys don't like it and are afraid of them, etc, etc, etc. Still, they remain a mystery. Some of these 'hunters' simply disappear, drop out of the face of the earth; others get tired and give up; others simply are too stubborn to give up but can't seem to find a clue to follow… to put it simply, the Memory Keepers are around, but don't seem to have an official territory. They're like a big anonymous organization. But that's simply impossible – unless this theory I'm forming right now is correct. Unless this place is associated with the memory keepers."

            She caressed the wall with a finger, feeling the rough scratches under it. "We arrived here with some kind of magic or technology, right? In a cave. That could be some kind of transportation means. And the memory keepers could possibly live or meet in places like these, using that same means of transportation to come and go… and they must be a _lot _of people. After all, this place is extremely big and deep, and, although it was probably abandoned for some time, seem to be able to give decent shelter. The seemingly most important corridors were all chiseled without frilliness but with care; there are secret passageways all around; there are specific points for people to be transported to. This all is evidence that this place was carefully built to hold a lot of people for a long time. Built just under our houses. Under our noses. Underground."

            Her finger touched a particularly deep crack on the wall. "It looks like this place was attacked by something hideous and powerful, and that's why it was abandoned. I wonder what kind of memory keepers lived here? What did they guard? Who may know right now…"

            "Suzuki-san…" Sugoroku began, quietly. "I guess you forgot to tell about the H…"

            He trailed and stopped, as Suzuki pushed the wall – and it moved. 

~~*~~*~~

            The Headmaster ran up a long set of stairs, embracing an unwelcomed wall once again. 

            Startled by the whacking sound he had made, the man looked around, almost ready to jump; he was now sweating cold, and the blood that came out of his wounds was mingling with it. He was too frightened to consider conjuring a fireball and looking at himself or where he was going. 

            He was sweating, but with fear. 

            He was shaking, but with fear. 

            He was weak, but with fear. 

            In mere seconds, their roles had changed. 

            He had lied; he _knew_ quite a lot about the Games of Darkness, and knew that, when a rule wasn't specified, everything was fair. He was just… mind-numbed at the moment. He regretted it now. He could have specified rules to give him advantage, but nooo, he had to be distracted by the boy. 

            Maybe he did know what he was doing with him. 

            When the rules changed, there was no specification, apart from the change in "prize"; he now had to catch the boy. He'd rather catch the puzzle like he should have done. After all, having to catch the boy didn't mean the boy couldn't use whatever he had in hands to stop him from doing so. And the boy had quite a bit of magic in his hands. Dang, he should have caught the damned puzzle. _After _that, he would be able to gloat and do whatever he wanted with the boy. 

            By now he'd rather kill him quickly; that boy was scaring him _way _too much, and he hated being scared… 

            …was that the sound of clothes flapping? 

            He turned around, feeling cold to the deepest core, but didn't meet a pair of deadly violet eyes like he thought he would. Instead, there was a little girl, no more than 9 years old, sitting on the ground, hugging her knees. 

            She looked at him coldly through a pair of glasses, that reflected a ghostly light. Dressed in black from head to toe, her black hair falling over her extremely pale face, her eyes blood-shot… she looked like a macabre vampire spawn. 

            Very cute, in his tastes. But right now he was just spooked out of his mind. 

            He turned to run away, his breath caught in his throat, his eyes burning, seeing nothing in front of him; he never noticed the stairs were narrow, and the floor was a long way down… 

            Luckily – or not –, he fell on a set of stairs that was crossing the way down. 

            Wondering if his arm and ribs were broken, he sat up, weakly. He could faintly see the stairs going on above him… 

            The girl. 

            Sitting there, a few steps above him, as if she had been there the whole time. Looking at him coldly through a pair of glasses…

            "I know everything."

            He tried desperately to get up, shuffling backwards on his butt, his unmoving arm bouncing over each step he managed to go down; still, even though the girl remained unmoving, she always seemed to be at the same distance. Just a few steps up, no matter how many he went down.

            "I know what you did to my sister." Her eyes were still cold, boring into his soul like spears. 

            "You… you…" he squeaked, in sheer terror. 

            "I know what you did to my father." Her bloodshot eyes seemed to dig in deeper…

            "You… you should be…" he kept on awkwardly going downstairs, painfully, but the girl just wouldn't go away…

            "I _saw_ it." The phantasmagoric girl never moved an inch, but her glasses suddenly flashed. "And you can't do a _thing_."

            "…_DEAD!! _I saw it—" he was shaking – feeling helpless, terrified like he never did before…__

            "Oh, you _saw it_?" the girl suddenly stood up, putting one hand over her face with a smirk. "Or wasn't it more like you **_DID IT?!_**"

            Without a change in expression, the girl ripped half her face with her nails, blood trailing down her neck and into her black dress.

            The man released a bloodcurdling scream, falling down the stairs in his panic, until he finally reached a flat surface; hoping against all hope she was gone, he looked up…

            She was there. A few steps above him, sitting, hugging her knees. Her bloodshot eyes behind the glasses bore into his soul with the same coldness, the same intensity. Her black hair still covered her extremely pale face. 

            But now half her face was covered with blood. It had already soaked a good part of her black dress, and was making a small puddle on the ground as it dripped, slowly. Still, she didn't even seem to notice it. 

            "Do you really think you can get away with murder?" asked her, softly. "I know what you did… I know everything you did… and it's not that easy to get rid of a memory…"

            She reached a hand towards him, as if to touch his face, but halfway she seemed to get blurred, to transform… 

            Yuugi touched the Headmaster's cheek with a finger, his face dripping blood, his shirt soaked; the blood puddle was still on the ground. He was pale as death, but his eyes were cold, infinitely cold. 

            "Game over." His lips never moved, as spikes came from him and around him to stab the man mercilessly…

            The voice came from behind the Headmaster, and, as he was speared beyond pain, he bent backwards… 

            Yuugi, looking utterly disgusted and sick, was leaning with his back to the wall, arms crossed. The headmaster could only look at him, baffled, recognizing that place as the "change of rules" point… the boy hadn't moved from that place ever since…

            Yuugi put the puzzle back on his neck, and walked towards him a few steps. 

            "I win." 

            The cave now seemed to not have changed at all. The same walls, no stairs, no passages, no nothing. 

            No creepy girl. No enticing little doll…

            Just a _very creepy_, pale, and now silently and discreetly infuriated, student. 

            "And I can understand a few things I couldn't before," he kept on. "Even though I couldn't see what you were seeing. Anyway, the moot point is: you wanted my puzzle, but were too weak to get it; after that, you wanted me, but were also too weak to get me. You let yourself be led by illusions too much. You let yourself be guided by your "sensitive skin"… you have a weak heart. Well, what to expect from a sick bastard." His eyes shone eerily, and the faint image of a third eye started to form itself on his forehead… 

            The Eye of Horus flashed gloriously, complete with the tear streaks, crossing his eyes like a tattoo; his whole figure seemed to melt within the darkness, his shirt and hair flapping over the amount of power that his body was emitting… 

            "Your punishment of darkness is… _drowning within the blood you have shed._"

            Letting the light die, Yuugi turned around and, leaning on the wall, started walking back to Jounouchi and Honda. Now, all he had to do was wait for them to wake up, since it was stated in the rules that they'd be freed if his foe were defeated…

            Behind him, the man trashed and gurgled desperately, until all sounds disappeared. 

~~*~~*~~

            Yuugi staggered a bit, and his legs finally gave up; he fell on his knees, hugging his recently recovered jacket. 

            He felt sick, a bitter taste flowing up his stomach. He had managed to keep his cool in front of that… creature, but now everything was crumbling on him…

            Even though he knew the man had no way to win, he just felt sick – knowing that people like that existed… knowing that people like that were around… 

            And Jounouchi was lucky for having entered Domino High School just that year. With time, the treats would grow until he had no way out… 

            And what would be about "himself"? What would that man do? What kind of plans did he have? 

            Unable to hold back, Yuugi threw all contents of his stomach out. 

            '_I'm pretty sure this is gonna give a huge backlash…_' he wiped his mouth. '_Crap…_'

            Making some effort to calm himself down, he stood up again, dressing his jacket, and walked a bit, breathing deeply, still leaning on the wall. Avoiding a crack that seemed particularly huge under the light of the puzzle, he was finally able to see his two companions, still stretched out on the ground like two rag dolls. 

            The boy swayed and blinked, as if he was waking up from a dream. "Jounouchi-kun…? Honda-kun…?"

            Yuugi looked around, bewildered, but couldn't see anybody else. Hesitantly at first, then at full speed, he ran towards his two friends, shaking them desperately. 

            "Honda-kun, wake up!! Wake up, Jounouchi-kun, please, wake up, you two…" he pleaded, his eyes filling with tears; each unresponsive second added more to the anguish that was threatening to swallow his mind. "WAKE UP!!" he finally screamed. "WAKE UP, PLEASE!!!" 

            Receiving no response, he bowed his head in despair…

            _SNOOOOOOORE_

            Honda blinked and rubbed an eye, trying to focus his eyesight in the twilight; he sat up, sleepily, and looked disapprovingly at his noisy friend, without noticing Yuugi's delighted expression. 

            "Stop snoring, pig…" he nudged Jounouchi, groggily; the next moment, though, he was standing up in a jump, groaning because of his back, and falling into fighting stance, looking around much like Yuugi had done before. 

            Seeing no threat, he looked down at his teary-eyed friend. "…where is the freak?"

            "I don't know…" the boy answered weakly, a big smile adorning his pale face. "He was here threatening me, and when I notice he's gone… I was so afraid…" he raised a hand to his head, that was starting to feel numb. 

            He was suddenly hit by a wave of nausea; the last thing he saw before darkness engulfed his vision was Jounouchi sitting up and freaking out at him. 

~*~*~*~*~*~

            April 24, 2003: Whew… finally, 'tis finished!! Big thanks to Lily22, that proofread this monster twice, and to Alecto Perdita, since I'm a big fan of his "Gifted" fic and he just reviewed me saying wonders about this Yuugiverse ^^ This took long because University has been sucking out my energy and my sister has been studying computational methods or whatever the freaky thing is called. Anyway, it's done and over with… at least this chapter. The other one has… one sentence, right now. ^___^; Yay…

            So what did you guys think about this chapter? About Yami Yuugi? Like him, hate him? Criticism, flames, flattery, flowers, tomatoes, everything is accepted. I'm an open-minded person. Please review, I read all of them. ^^ 

            Also, as I've said last chapter, I've opened a group at yahoo for those who want to know when the next chapter is going to come. Update notes, excuses for not updating after two months and general discussion will be through the ML. The addresses are below:

YGOundergroundml-subscribe@yahoogroups.com - to subscribe

- the main page. Nothing there yet. 

            That's all for now, folks.


	11. Revelations

Eye Gate Deep 10

**By Elanor Pam**

**"Revelations"**

April 24, 2003: Weee!! Began chappie!! Wheeze, the bloody Headmaster is finally gone, Mou Hitori no Yuugi has finally made his so awaited debut, and all cars are reaching the final loop. Be prepared!

June 5, 2003: ………after writing my fic for Chibizoo's contest… finally back to this one . 

May 21, 2004: …………………ONE YEAR, JOLLY GAWD!! And I wrote… four pages!! Woot!! You'll like this chapter, everything (kind of) falls in place! Who is Haruno? Who is the Headmaster? You won't know it all, but you'll learn a lot of cool things!

**Disclaimer:** on the phone Hey, I said I wanted mayonnaise and ketchup in my sandwich!! smacks table How do ya expect me to survive without ma mayonnaise and ketchup?!

Ok, that made no sense. You know the drill.

"YUUGI!! YOU OK? WHAT HAPPENED?!" Jounouchi shook his swaying friend, in panic, while Honda tried to pry his hands off Yuugi's shoulders and help the smaller one sit.

"Hn… hn…"

"YUUGI, SAY SOMETHING!! ANYTHING!!" Jounouchi was on the verge of a nervous breakdown.

"Hn… hnn…"

"YUUGI!! OH GOD OH GOD OH GODS!! HE'S _DYING_!!" Jounouchi was screeching already, but Honda was pious enough to give him a punch on the back of his head using all the strength he could gather at the moment.

With the impact, Jounouchi ended up letting go of Yuugi, and so he turned to his dark-haired friend while the smaller one fell on the ground with a funny thud. The blond boy turned to Honda, his eyes blazing with fury.

"**WHAT DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING, YOU FUCKING—**"

"Jounouchi-kun… I'm ok."

Jounouchi turned back, slowly, while Honda pried his hands off his neck. His hazel eyes were misty as he looked at Yuugi's half-smiling and quite stupefied expression, and after a moment in which his lips trembled dangerously, he sighed in relief.

"Thank god, you looked like you couldn't breathe…"

"That's because you were throttling him," informed Honda, his brows flat.

"Was NOT! Was I?" Jounouchi turned to the boy in question, searching for confirmation.

Yuugi couldn't find it in his heart to lie, so he just gave a kind of forced smile.

"See? I wasn't!!"

"I give up…" Honda turned on his heels, hands in his pockets, ignoring the complaining gashes on his back. "Shouldn't we get going? Does anybody have any idea what time it is?"

Yuugi automatically turned to his watch, to find out it wasn't working.

"Erm… well, I don't think it's more than 1am…" the boy shrugged. "A lot of things happened, but it was all very quick, so…"

"Either way, we really should get going," Jounouchi rubbed one eye. "This place is creepy, and I'm getting tired…"

The others nodded – it wasn't as if they had an option – and walked ahead, using the secret door the headmaster came from as reference point to their original direction; when they passed by it, though, Yuugi suddenly stopped.

The boys turned to him, surprised. He was pointing to the door by his side, the light from the puzzle making his eyes seem slightly narrower.

"We could try this way," he said, simply. "The headmaster seemed to know something about this place, so this should be a safer passageway."

Jounouchi blinked. Something seemed slightly amiss, but since it didn't feel dangerous, he shrugged it off. "Hm… it makes sense…" He turned to Honda, questioningly.

Honda, that didn't seem to have noticed anything amiss at all, just shrugged and nodded, walking into the passageway without a word. The other two followed, being given a nice shot of the shredded and bloodied back of his trench coat. Yuugi raised an eyebrow, turning to Jounouchi questioningly.

"We ran into a weird ass monster on our way to you," Jounouchi said, shrugging and not looking really effected, though it was probably because the monster was in the past. "Nicked Honda badly, as you can see, and almost got me, too." He showed the rips on the back of his jacket. "But some teamwork and your friend there took care of it."

Jounouchi waved a hand at the puzzle, and Yuugi couldn't help but smirk slightly. "Oh, right…"

The blond blinked, surprised. "What's right? And what's with the smirk?"

Yuugi looked up at him, eyes widening for a moment, and then he hurriedly shook his hands in front of him. "Er, it has nothing to do with that! Just something that came to my mind just now…"

It was Jounouchi's turn to smirk. "Yeah, yeah… been getting smug after piecing that puzzle thingy, eh? Don't let it get to your head, pal!"

Yuugi had a fit of laughter at that, covering his face with a hand while his shoulders shook with mirth. Jounouchi laughed along with him, not knowing that Yuugi found his comment funny for different reasons, and they were at that when they suddenly ran into Honda, that yelped when they hit his aching back.

Jounouchi wiped away some dried blood flakes that got stuck in his overgrown fringe, frowning. "Do you have any special reason to stop without giving a warning?"

"…yeah…" Honda's voice cracked, and his body leaned to the left at an alarming angle. "…it's… fuzzy…"

Before they could hold him, Honda corkscrewed to the ground, his torso leaning heavily against the cave wall – that, unfortunately, rotated around itself and left him to fall on his shoulder all the way through.

They both ran into the new passageway, rushing to see if Honda was alive or not, and Jounouchi couldn't help but wonder if he, too, was going to pass out before the night was over. Ignoring the possibility, he helped Yuugi sit him up, the dark haired boy's head lolling to the side, eyes half-rolled.

"Honda-kun, are you feeling ok? Honda-kun?" Yuugi shook him lightly, his eyes wide and slightly watery.

Jounouchi would have shook Honda even more hysterically, but for some reason he couldn't help noticing a very small, barely perceptible difference in the overall atmosphere. He turned to Yuugi, blinking, but the smaller one was trying to cover Honda's neglected wounds with his jacket, looking about to burst in tears. When he turned back to Honda, though, the teen grabbed his arm with a sudden urgency.

"What, Honda, you're creeping us out!" Jounouchi tried to free his arm and help Yuugi with the jacket, to no avail.

"_The door – wall – whatever_!!"

Two seconds of silence echoed as Jounouchi and Yuugi stared at him, baffled, and then they turned to look behind them…

…just in time to pull Honda's legs out of the way as the wall closed with a very, very ominous and out of place _clang_.

Two more seconds of silence echoed as they stared at where the entrance had once been, and then Yuugi lifted a thin leg to kick the wall. It made a dull, low sound, and didn't budge. He narrowed his eyes at the door, as if his glare could open it again, and then turned back to the task of tending to Honda.

"Well, hot damn…" his voice was slightly more annoyed than anyone was used to hearing it, but Jounouchi couldn't blame him, since he himself wasn't feeling particularly happy at the moment.

The blond teen shrugged. "It's not like we know for sure where we're going to…"

Yuugi nodded distantly and sighed, now looking tired rather than annoyed. "You're right… but… I don't know, I'm a bit worried…"

"I'm better!" Honda exclaimed suddenly, sitting up by himself, pushing their hands away and holding his head in his hands. "Why, oh why couldn't this be a dream?" he whined, then looked up at his two companions. "Is it just me or something smells different here?"

Jounouchi blinked, then closed his eyes, inhaling deeply… to have a coughing fit.

"Er, Jounouchi-kun?" Yuugi put a hand on his shoulder, worried.

"_Smoke!_" Jounouchi managed to choke down a second fit, wheezing. "Something is burning down there!"

Honda's brows went flat again. "How do they say it? Oh, yeah… out of the frying pan and into the fire."

"Quite literally…" Yuugi blinked, trying to sniff any distinctive smell.

"At least it'll be warm," slurred Honda, leaning heavily on Jounouchi while standing up. "I'm feeling really darn cold."

"It must be the blood loss, I dunno," shrugged Jounouchi, standing up as well and pulling Honda along with him. "I was starting to find it weird that you were walking around for so long like that. You're tough, man, but not THAT tough."

"Gee, thanks…"

They walked down the passageway slowly, Honda dragging his feet, and after a few minutes of silent walking even Yuugi could feel the faint smell of something burning, and notice the small but meaningful change in temperature. He glanced to Jounouchi and Honda worriedly, and Jounouchi answered with an anxious glance of his own; he was noticeably trying to breathe slowly, probably to prevent another coughing fit. Honda's eyelids were droopy, and he seemed pale even in the faint light of the puzzle – it did seem as if the wound had been getting to him for a while.

As they made their way down the passage – that seemed to decline very lightly, carvings and writings increasing on its walls – the temperature rose noticeably; the air was growing hot and heavy, and the walls seemed to get a slightly red tint, perceptible even under the puzzle's golden light. The hallway widened, and hot, suffocating air blew on their faces; the now evident reddish light danced around them, and up ahead they could see the fire of what seemed to be many, many torches.

Except that it wasn't just torches. Actually, torches, walls, pyres and their support seemed to be burning down, precious carvings and drawings blackening up and charring under the heat. The fire spread slowly, up and down the wall, and while it had already reached the tall ceiling, the floor seemed relatively safe.

The threesome stepped inside, appalled but slightly hopeful at the sight of many other openings around the room, and then they noticed something, or rather, someone.

Someone surrounded by fire, calmly standing in front of the stairs to a burning altar. Someone with long black hair and a flowing skirt that reached down to her shoes.

Haruno Takasugi turned her head to glance at them, smiling; then she turned back to gaze at the burning altar again. She seemed serene and out of place, standing in the middle of the fire as if it weren't there.

Yuugi gasped, covering his mouth with his hands, and immediately stepped forward – Jounouchi stepped up after him with an exclamation, and Honda held his shoulder immediately.

"Don't be an idiot, Yuugi," he wheezed. The smoke wasn't doing him any well.

"That's right," Jounouchi glared at the woman's back, hoisting Honda back up on his shoulder; the other boy was sagging. "We don't know what she wants exactly. She was friends with the headmaster, and seems to know a lot of weird stuff."

"I do," Haruno's voice suddenly sounded different – sharper, stronger, more mature. "But I'm not and have never been friends with the 'headmaster', as you call him. You don't know his name, apparently… officially, it's Tarou Ishibashi, but his real name is Juuroumaru Tanaka."

Yuugi held his breath for a second as she spoke, his lips pressing in a grim line as if some kind of suspicion had just been confirmed. He shook off Honda's hand, to his and Jounouchi's protests, and walked till the center of the room, turning then to his left.

Haruno stood a few meters away, her back to him, the altar before and above her cracking and snapping in the fire. A wall of fire stood between them. Yuugi bit his lower lip, his expression so unreadable it was obvious that something was eating him up badly.

"Don't go off on your own like that, dumbass!" hissed Jounouchi right by his ear, making the boy jump in surprise. "What if she attacks you or whatever?!"

Yuugi blinked at him, momentarily lost as to what they were talking about, and noticed that Jounouchi, despite having both hands busy supporting Honda, had somehow managed to cover the wounded teen's face with a cloth. When Jounouchi growled into his face again, to then fall in a coughing fit, his comment suddenly registered, and he quickly shook his head. "She won't attack us!"

Jounouchi kept on coughing for a few more seconds, and then exhaled deeply. "How can you be so sure of that?"

"He knows me," Haruno answered instead, still with her back to them. "But let's not get into that right now… those other people involved in this are about to arrive, and when they do everything will be clarified."

Jounouchi seemed to mull over those words for a moment, while Honda made a sound more or less like a snort mixed with a growl and a gurgle, followed by a few coughs, which probably meant he wasn't getting any better.

And, right on cue, Sugoroku, Anzu and Suzuki came in through another entrance, looking as baffled and miserably losing hopes as they probably had upon arriving. Anzu had her jacket tied around her head in a weird way, with water trailing down her face, which just reminded Jounouchi that he was getting thirsty.

"Erm…" Honda coughed a bit, and then made an effort to speak louder. "Auntie, how come you… knew they were arriving?"

Haruno turned to look at them just as Anzu hurried over, looking tired and staggering a bit, but overall seeming all right. Sugoroku and Suzuki soon followed, and Haruno clasped her hands together, her voice going back to the soft, sweet tone she had always used. "Oh, they arrived sooner than I thought! Good!"

Anzu hugged Yuugi lightly, looking relieved, and then turned to Honda, worried. "What happened to you?" and added, her voice lowering: "And why is that woman here?"

"That's exactly what I was going to ask," Sugoroku's voice suddenly boomed; he stepped forward, his eyes narrowed, his face set seriously. Haruno stuck her tongue out playfully, a sheepish look on her face.

Yuugi gripped Anzu's arm suddenly, squeezing it, and suddenly she understood.

"WAIT!!" screamed Suzuki suddenly, walking forward to stand in front of Sugoroku. "Where's that bastard Tanaka, or Ishibashi, or whatever he's been calling himself lately?" she panted.

Haruno smiled sweetly to the woman, and it wasn't only one of them that were reminded of Yuugi's own sweet smiles.

"You could wait for him, Suzuki-sensei. All the passageways of this labyrinth end up here. But I don't think he'll come…" She smiled again, but it wasn't that same sweet smile; it was somewhat sad, yet satisfied. "He's dead. He's finally dead."

Suzuki's eyes widened, and, for a few seconds, she seemed to struggle to make a sound. "But… but…"

"How, you ask?" Haruno smiled sweetly again, though there was still that strange trace of sadness; she opened her arms as if to embrace someone. "The Judge of Darkness came and sentenced him to death… which brings me to why the hell I'm here."

She turned to Sugoroku, and, suddenly, her big, red-brown eyes were shimmering with what almost seemed like tears. Anzu squeezed Yuugi's hand reassuringly, and Sugoroku bit his lip, his eyes widening in an effort to keep his own emotions at bay…

Haruno pulled her long, shiny back hair, and a wig came off. Under it was short, glossy dark red hair, the dark roots standing out. She dropped the wig on the rests of a burning pyre nearby, and proceeded to pull the skin from her own face, the rubbery material of the mask stretching ghastly.

And now, shining to them was a sweet smile just _too_ much like Yuugi's own, in a face _too_ much like Yuugi's own.

Yuugi choked down a sob, while Anzu narrowed her eyes to the woman, serious. Jounouchi looked from Yuugi to Haruno to Yuugi, completely confused, and even Honda seemed to forget for a moment that he needed a blood transfusion.

"What… what the hell…?" whispered Jounouchi, feeling some strange kind of link between them –Sugoroku, Haruno and Yuugi –, a link different from any others he had felt.

"That woman isn't any Haruno Takasugi," Anzu said, fiercely. "Her real name, as far as I know…"

Haruno smiled, interrupting Anzu. "…is Hikaru Mutou."

Silence fell like a curtain, and even the fire seemed to stop crackling. The sound of a sniff suddenly seemed to echo in the hot, smoking room.

Yuugi wiped a tear. "She's my… mother…"

Jounouchi almost let go of Honda in surprise, and Honda didn't even seem to notice. They both looked at the parties involved, often exchanging glances with an equally bewildered Suzuki, and Honda was the first to snap out of the shock, while Jounouchi shook his head in disbelief.

"Is… is that true?"

A tear slid down Hikaru's face, and she looked down to the hot floor… then shook her head weakly. "…it's not…"

Yuugi buried his face into Anzu's arm, and she didn't try to stop him from crying.

Sugoroku shook his head as well, stepping forward, and spoke with a trembling voice. "Hikaru, that… that was…"

"He knows already," she said weakly. "He has known for who knows how long…"

Sugoroku looked back to Yuugi, and then to Hikaru, then shook his head as if to clear his thoughts; he motioned to the burning room around him. "And what is the meaning of _this_? What exactly is it you were planning? Because I know you had it all planned, kid, it wouldn't be you if you didn't."

Hikaru raised her head, looking straight at Yuugi, who seemed to have calmed down enough to stop sobbing, and now also looked at her. She smiled kindly, then, and, to their surprise, turned back to the altar behind her.

"It's crumbling, look…"

They could only watch enraptured as the pyre on the tall platform gave away under the flames and fell on itself, charring, snapping. Behind it, resisting bravely against the fire, was a wall covered in many writings, in apparently many languages.

"That altar," she kept on, "That was originally the point of my entire plan, has burned completely… it had no more purpose…"

She turned back to them, her skirt flying around her gracefully, and her voice was now cold and impersonal as she narrated facts.

"My original plan was to perform a magic ritual. A black magic ritual involving Yuugi and the Puzzle of Thousand Years." She indicated the burnt down altar with a hand. "It was to take place on that altar."

She climbed the few steps that lead to the top of the platform, and, holding the hem of her skirt to keep it from burning, she found a safe patch of floor to stand on.

"On this altar, I planned to transfer all the magic of the Puzzle of Thousand Years to Yuugi. It—" her voice wavered, "It'd probably be painful… but I was thinking about the long term advantages. I've been watching you, Yuugi," she raised her eyes to look into his eyes, "I've seen how much you suffered, at home, at school, everywhere, with the burden of a secret to carry. I know what it feels like… dad knows as well…"

Sugoroku looked down, and a single tear also slid down his face.

"…after all, we too have kept terrible secrets for a long time."

Hikaru smiled, then, and sighed.

"But then your mother came to me, Yuugi. She said she had plans for you as well. I never thought she would… she was never much of a planner; she was always cheerful and confident on the future, even in the worst times…" the woman shrugged, as if at a loss of words, and wiped a stubborn tear. "She also had a lot of fun making us break our minds trying to understand her, that little rascal… but either way she came, and told me in no uncertain ways that I was underestimating you and your abilities." she looked down at her own feet. "I felt bad, but at the same time I felt happy. I knew exactly what she meant. You had what was needed to solve the puzzle by yourself, and there was no need for intricate rituals… my job was just to make you face a situation that would require you to do so. Maybe provide you some extra power to help you do so earlier than expected. The tablet at school was the key to arrive here, and I had it all set up using the excuse of opening the gate for the Headmaster Ishibashi… you reacted quite strongly to it at school, principally after it tasted your blood. It might have felt a connection between itself and you and started draining your energy…"

She smiled up to Yuugi, who looked completely baffled, and laughed at his face.

"Quite a lot of information, isn't it? Your would-be mother knows magic, your school had a gateway to some god-forsaken place and your toy puzzle has powers! But don't grow too expectant yet… it'll be a long time till you know what and how to do what you can do. But it's a beginning. Quit with the scared look. I did it for your own good. Now, my work is done."

She held a few folds of her skirt royally, lifting the hem from the ground.

"Just like these pyres and this altar, I'm not needed anymore…"

Light started to flow from the ground, and they all felt light headed.

"I think it's about 1:30am right now… yep… it's time for you to go back the way you came from."

And she held the hem of her skirt against the fire.

"**_MOTHER!!_**" Yuugi jumped forward, without hesitation, and Sugoroku had to hold the boy to keep him from jumping over fire and pyre towards the woman. "**_SHE'S KILLING HERSELF, SHE'S KILLING HERSELF!!_**"

"**HIKARU!!**" Sugoroku screamed, stepping forward as if against his own will, holding Yuugi back with all his strength. "**WHAT EXACTLY DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING?!**"

Hikaru smiled sweetly, a smile just like Yuugi's, while her skirt quickly caught on fire, the flames spreading up to her shirt – she pulled a little notebook from under her shirt and threw it directly at Suzuki, who caught it out of impulse.

"I'm sticking with the rest of my original plan. Making sure Yuugi is safe, and then paying the price." She stood there, slowly catching on fire, not seeming to feel any pain. "Do you know, dad, of all the things I've been doing these last years? I've hated, I've hated so much, and I still hate… I've done wrong things, nothing that seemed really serious for me at the time, but now I know better."

The light intensified, and her voice grew weak and faraway.

"You should know too, dad… one day, it'll all be clear. It still isn't for me, but it should be to you. Do it for me, will you? Please…"

Her last voice echoed in the formless bean they were floating in. _Please…_

And then their feet found smooth tiles to stand on again, back at the school's third floor, the infamous tile with an eye carelessly scratched on it shining, a humming sound lingering in their eardrums.

Yuugi seemed paralyzed with woe.

September 29, 2004: ……………………WHEEZEPANTPASSOUT gn…

I SHALL FINISH THIS DRATTED FIC IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO IN MY LIFE. And since there are still people interested in what's going to happen next, and what the mysteries were about, I suppose it's only fair I make an effort. PLEASE FORGIVE ME for taking so long to update… I was so utterly disappointed with the dubbed anime it took all my love for the series. And the cards annoy me, too.

I've thought for a while that Yu-Gi-Oh! could have survived just fine without smacking the same damn card game's key so much, even though it'd be probably a little less successful – but who cares!! "Violinist of Hameln" is my favorite series ever, and tell me if YOU know or have known about it for more than 4 months! Most of you probably don't, or if you do, I was probably the one who smacked it in your heads. But once you get to know it, there's no turning back. I don't even know the entire series and yet it made me recover my faith in humanity. There's just something about an anti-hero who's trying to save the world from himself, principally when he falls in love.

See? I started rambling about Hameln and completely forgot my point. Well. I WILL finish this fic. The next chapter might take as long as this one did… or maybe next time I have a kanji test I'll also feel like ignoring the mating call of my sexy kanji book and its 68 lessons containing 8 kanjis each, and risk an ugly grade. Oh well.

ML - to - the main page. Nothing there yet.

Till next Yuugi-chapter, in this Yuugi-channel, in the same Yuugi-time!! Nananana nananana Yuugi-man!!


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